Hyderabad:
The cotton farms in Andhra Pradesh have turned into killing fields for farmers. At least 90 farmers have committed suicide in the last two months; the reason - monsoon failed them and so did the government.
"Should I cry for my son or for the debts? He has left me only with tears and the burden of his children and their future. What am I going to do?" said Lakshmi, mother of 30-year-old Srinivas who hanged himself to death.
In Chebarthi village, Srinivas had taken six acres on lease, at Rs 10,000 per acre, in addition to his father's land, to grow cotton. But the rains failed the crop. With no land in his name, he got no loan from banks. His debts, all from private sources, had grown to over Rs 3 lakh.
At 30, Srinivas was father to Mounika in class VII, Akhila in class III and Anil in class one. He had been keen that his children should never have to drop out of school. He would repeatedly reassure his mother that he would work hard and take care of her and his father.
Srinivas's young wife, Balamma, hardly 24, is not sure how she is even going to feed her children, forget ensuring they continue in school. Her immediate worry is that
Sivaratri is approaching and that is the deadline debtors have set for repayment of debts. The warning: we don't know what will happen to you if you don't repay by then.
Less than five kilometres away, in Alirajapeta in Medak district, another farmer Vaikuntam killed himself after the cotton crop failed for a second successive year. He had paid an advance on four acres of leased land, banking on the high price cotton fetched last year.
Like most other cotton farmers, Vaikuntam also had to buy seeds in the black market, paying upto Rs 2500 for a 450 gram seed packet that should have cost less than Rs 1000. Fertiliser prices also doubled and pesticide cost too went up by at least a third in the last one year.
"It is all gone. Last time it was floods, this time, rains failed. With cotton, he thought he could repay debts but it is all dried up and gone," said Vaikuntam's wife Padma.
With the price of cotton going up to Rs 6500 per quintal last year, the area under cotton virtually doubled to 47 lakh acres, or 25 per cent of the total sown area in the state - a clear recipe for disaster. But the government failed to act to avert the crisis.
At least 40 lakh acres of standing crop of cotton, maize, paddy and groundnut has dried up this kharif season. Independent field surveys have said that as a direct fallout, at least 90 farmer suicide-deaths have happened in just six districts of the state. The government is yet to collate data.
"The situation is very grim. Today the farmer has no confidence that he can repay because the system is designed in such a way that you end up in losses. There is no support from the government side. That is the whole crisis," said G V Ramanjaneyulu, from Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.