Dear Dr. Sharma,
Thanks for your comments. Supriya Sharma had discussed the farmers suicide issue with me few days back and on the basis of our discussion she quoted me. I have been following the cases of farmers suicide in Chhattisgarh for past 5 years. Cause of farmers suicides in CG are entirely different from rest of the states of India. Paddy is not a cash crop therefore farmers don’t not borrow huge sum of money, however, paddy productivity in Chhattisgarh is almost half of the national average and one fourth of Punjab. The data of actual paddy production had suddenly been changed in 2008-09. The year 2008 was the election year of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha. In the election manifesto Congress party declared Rs 250 bonus on each quintal of paddy, in reply BJP promised bonus of Rs. 270. Finally BJP won the election with Rs. 3/kg rice and Rs. 270/q paddy bonus scheme and made their promises accordingly after regaining the power. Unfortunately there was drought in 50 tahsil (Talluka) of CG during 2008-09, but to the great surprise paddy procurement from those drought affected tahsils were all time high surpassing all previous production records. This actually resulted into the GREAT PADDY SCAM of RS 1400 crores by state govt, traders, middleman and paddy smugglers. Since none of the neighboring states including Orissa, MP, Jharkand, Maharashtra declared such a huge bonus, paddy smuggled from these states. The production of paddy was adjusted against the local farmers land records causing an embracing productivity figures like 100 to 275 quintals paddy from just 1 to 2 acres. To cover up the entire scam, state agriculture department came up with solutions claiming that yield of paddy had been increased and the figures mentioned in previous years were of rice not those of paddy; which means until 2008, the total production of paddy (5.6 million tonnes) was not paddy but actually it was rice. Very cleverly the state department had been successful in saying that the paddy production of CG jumped to 8.2 Million ton in 2008-09. If you go through the paddy production records of CG you will find such a great jump in production of paddy. This year (2010-11) state has touched the paddy procurement of 4.9 million ton giving additional bonus of Rs 50 per q of paddy, whereas local mandis are almost blank with less than 1 millon ton, again the question is where is the rest of paddy claimed to be 9 million ton produced. Just to give one evidence, this year we conducted field experiments in 17 villages of Durg district and we did not come across with any farmer who could produce even 15 q/acre this year. The fact is productivity of paddy in CG is less than 6q/acre whereas in backward district like bastar productivity is just 2 to 3 q/acre. In Chhattisgarh Paddy is cultivated in 37.5 lakh Ha and overall production is just around 5.5 million ton. Here farming itself is a loss making occupation, due to production under all kind of stress including water, seeds, fertilzers, finance etc. Farmers suicide is very common here, that’s why it is not a new type of uncommon phenomenon as found in other states. All the political parties know this but avoid this to comment up on. Farmers commit suicide at higher rate but the police has corrected the record by stating the cause of suicide as “mental imbalance, sickness, unknown, family dispute, unemployment, …. Not to mention crop failure, loan, bankers harassment, relatives threats etc. Chhattisgarh follows the line of paddy and poverty go together but ultimately….. kill the farmers. Since Chhattisgarh does not have voice in Union Cabinet, the cry of killed farmers families are unheard.

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