Hope dies when the Karnataka fails a dead farmer

As Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tours parched districts of north Karnataka, sugarcane growers of Belagavi rue another bitter harvest.  And who could sum up the plight of debt-ridden growers better than the family of Vittal Arbhavi, the sugarcane grower, who sent shock waves across the state by committing suicide in front of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha during a legislature session in Belagavi three years ago? Naushad Bijapur holds up a mirror to the desperate life of the forgotten farmer, and this deadly cycle of death, unrest, debt and poverty that never ends.

Today, Arbhavi’s family struggles to make both ends meet. A square meal a day is a luxury. Sitting in their dilapidated shed at Kankanwadi, near Raibag, where they lead a wretched existence, Vittal’s two wives, five children and many grandchildren rue the day they lost their lone breadwinner. Few would forget the image of a grief-stricken Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gazing down at the emaciated body of Arbhavi and loudly declaring compensation for his kin. The politicians have long disappeared and the Arbhavis are still waiting with their fingers crossed for a small house and the promised government job.

All that the family has to make a livelihood with, is their one-acre field. With preying sugar factories leaving the family in dire straits  without paying them for the cane they supplied for years, they made the switchover to maize hoping for better returns. “We are struggling to make ends meet with maize hardly fetching anything for the past three years. We take up odd jobs to meet our basic needs,” says Radhika, daughter-in-law of Vittal. “Growing maize did not work out as it is not a cash-rich crop in this region,” explains Vittal's son Raghavendra.

The paltry Rs 10 lakh compensation which the family got after Vittal’s death was paid to banks from where the dead farmer had availed loans to grow sugarcane. The house and job were soon forgotten though the pathetic story of the Arbhavi family has been repeatedly highlighted in the media, adds Radhika.

Like many other land holdings in the region, the one-acre field of Vittal has been split between Raghavendra and his brother Bhimshi, that has landed the family in a deeper financial mess. Their appeals to the government for help have been unsuccessful. “The government could have at least allotted a bigger field to the family so that we could have a better chance of leading a comfortable life. Despite being aware of the sugarcane crisis that forced Vittal to commit suicide, it is unfortunate that the administration neglected our family so badly,” says a family member.

All that the family can do now is  fall back on cane “After growing cane for so many decades, we feel the soil here is fit for only cane and growing other crops may be risky. A shift to another crop requires more investment, agriculture labourers and transport and marketing facilities. But we could have taken the risk if we had more land,” says Raghavendra.

Another cane grower, Shivanand Patil who lives in  the Raibag region contends that growing cane has several advantages as the factories themselves cut the standing crop and carry it to factories every season. “Earlier, every cane grower was happy as factories paid a decent sum and on time. Rising political interference in factories in the last few years has worsened the cane crisis,” says Shivanand.

A family friend of Vittal, advocate Sadashiv Nidoni blames the government for the family’s plight. “No farmer kills himself unless he is really in dire straits. Vittal’s suicide happened when a legislature session was in progress, the government should have ensured that his family outlived the crisis. Unfortunately, his sacrifice has neither helped his family nor the fraternity of cane growers,” he says, regretfully.

The debts are mounting steadily and families like those of Arbhavi are slipping into a deeper crisis where hope disappears and death is the only exit left.   The vagaries of the market and fluctuating prices of sugar, have played havoc with their fortunes with cane factories in no hurry to pay them their dues and make their lives easier. Will this deadly cycle of death, unrest, debt and poverty ever end?  Belagavi and especially Raibag is waiting for answers and hoping that it won’t come too late forcing many more to turn to the noose.

Kalyanrao Muchlambi, a well known farmer leader from Belagavi, known as the sugar-bowl of Karnataka, sees no solution in sight to the problems faced by growers as long as the factories are run by politicians. ''Most politicians running factories depend on huge money earned by their factories to face the elections. We have seen how politicians, whose main source of income is their sugar factory, squander money in abundance in elections. If not from the factories, where will they get this money from,'' he asks while blaming them for the factories’ inability to pay a decent sum to  cane growers

Of the 75 lakh families which grow cane, 45 lakh have taken loans  
A powerful lobby of sugar factories, run by leading politicians of the state has ruined the lives of lakhs of sugarcane growers with 250 of them committing suicide in the span of a year. With cane growers' pending bills  piling up to Rs 400 crore, most of the 45 lakh growers who availed loans in the last one year have no option but to end their lives or lead a miserable existence, unable to clear their debts.

President of the State Sugarcane Growers Association Kuruburu Shanthkumar, who is heading an agitation of cane growers in Bengaluru demanding a fair price for cane and payment of pending cane bills, is against cane growers switching to other crops. “Growing of other agri or horticulture crops is a tedious process which will fetch a meagre amount. It is difficult to get agriculture labourers in any part of the state these days which prevents cane growers from making the switch,'' he adds.

He says 75 lakh families in the state grow cane of whom 45 lakh have availed loans from financial institutions including cooperative societies. The rest depend on loans given by private money lenders.  

He suggests that the government modify the present period of repayment of cane growers loans from 12 months to 18 months to lessen the burden. “The MPs and MLAs fight for a hike in their salaries every year but never for a hike in cane price. Considering the massive profits earned by sugar factories, cane growers must get Rs 3000 per tonne of cane against Rs 2000 which most factories pay currently. The price of cane should be fixed by the government based on profits earned by factories as most growers spend more than Rs 2,500 on growing cane in an acre,”' he says.

Shanthkumar is hopeful that a meeting of the State Sugarcane Board in Bengaluru will find a way out to resolve the major problems faced by cane growers.