How the political class of Telangana is only worsening its dying farmers' plight

Amid the ecstasy of becoming India’s 29th state, a grim reality in the arid farm lands of Telangana, is the gloom prevalent among farmers, ending in tragic surrender to death. Parched agriculture fields have so often led to major crop failures that desperate farmers prefer to kill themselves rather than attempt to come out of a literally insurmountable debt-trap.[caption id=“attachment_1652723” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Farm land? Reuters[/caption] The truth lies in the statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau. Records show that a shocking 101 farmer suicide cases were reported in the first two months since the creation of Telangana. “Telangana has reported the worst monsoon deficit in the country this kharif season…. The inadequate monsoon has driven many farmers to the edge of despair,” NDTV reporter  Uma Sudhir said. “I don’t see too many chances of a recovery,” director general of the Indian Meteorological department Lakshman Singh Rathore told NDTV while talking about the poor monsoon in the country’s newest state this year. Amid fears of a failed monsoon, a wet July improved the situation substantially in many parts of the country. But Telangana was not so fortunate. According to a report in Mint, the rainfall figures in the state is totally insufficient to offer any hope to the agrarian class. “Between 1 June and 5 August 2014, the rainfall deficit in Telangana stood at 48% of the long period average—as against 19% for the entire country. Overall low rainfall in the state, to make matters worse for farmers, was punctuated by prolonged dry spells. In June, three weeks recorded deficits of 83%, 73% and 82%, while in the third week of July the rainfall deficit was 69%."— the Mint report said. Neither the drought nor the farmer suicides are new in Telangana. The saddest part to date is that there has been no long-term planning to fight this situation, which arises every year. “The spectre of drought is a constant feature in Telangana especially since no attempts have been made to fight it on a long term basis with the implementation of permanent anti-drought measures. The problem is made worse as irrigation is underdeveloped, there has been no industrialization nor has any skill development taken place in the region. The result is that a majority of the people, the poor and the landless are at the mercy of nature. Only a copious monsoon can assure them of at least three months of wages. Or else, they leave their hearths and homes and migrate to distant cities in search of livelihood."—PL Vishweshwer Rao wrote in a piece Telangana: A Tale of Unmitigated Misery. What is worrisome is that despite this climbing graph in farmer suicides, authorities have not displayed much political will to seriously address the issue, ad have instead resorted to their time tested strategy of blame games. With the new state still being in its nascent stage, this has only become a political tool to pass the buck on neighbouring Anndhra Pradesh. “I will only blame the political system, the Seemandhra leaders and their mindset. They never tried to give water to Telangana farmers,” Telangana Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao told NDTV. Lack of farsightedness among  political leaders is not only pushing the farming class into further depression it has also managed to create a hole in the country’s economy due to mindless announcements of loan waivers for political gains. These waivers only manage to widen the fiscal deficit pulling the Gross Domestic Product index further down. On Tuesday, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said that no major crop damages werecaused by Cyclone Phailin last year in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Yet the state governments announced massive loan waivers ahead of the parliamentary and Assembly polls this year in these states. “While the quantum of affected farm loan in Andhra is around Rs 87,000 crore, it is over Rs 40,000 crore in the new state."— a report in The Economic Times said. Another major problem that has come up is the absence of a trickle down effect of the steps taken by the Centre to tackle the situation caused by a bad monsoon. Most of the Centre’s directives are advisories in nature and there is hardly any effective mechanism to monitor its implementation on the ground. On 11 July this year, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Sanjeev Kumar Balyan informed Rajya Sabha that “contingency plans for 500 districts for implementing location specific interventions to sustain agriculture production in the eventuality of weak monsoon/deficient rainfall” are in place. This statement clearly stands in opposition if juxtaposed against the number of farmer suicides in the span of last two months. “States have been advised to ensure availability of short duration and drought tolerant varieties of seeds so as to be in a position to supply them to farmers in case such a need arises. States have also been advised to keep asides 10 percent of funds available under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and other schemes for undertaking appropriate interventions to mitigate any situation arising out of deficient rainfall. States have also been requested to construct water harvesting structures, restore irrigation infrastructure by desilting canals; energising tubewells, replacing/repairing faulty pumps and arranging power to meet irrigation needs,” read Balyan’s statement in Parliament. The instructions sound good on paper but there is no methodology provided to channelise the benefits to the deserving beneficiaries particularly in the suicide-prone zones. Of late, Telangana has turned to Israeli technology to maximise its farm output using minimum water. A report in The Hindu said that “as many as 72 constituencies in the state had no water and had to depend on rain-fed agriculture” besides “an acute shortage of groundwater”. If Telangana is seriously serious about bringing in foreign technology to its barren farmlands, the state would perhaps see a lesser number of widows and orphans become victims of a withered land.