Every year we witness many cases of farmer suicide in the state and in past few years it has risen alarmingly. The state government completes its duty by paying out compensation to the bereaved families and ordering inquiry. Very often the outcomes of these inquiries don’t see the light of the day. The fact is that, instead of looking deeply into the causes and circumstances that lead the farmers to take the extreme step, the government pursues the matter in a superficial way. Out of the many factors that make the farmer’s life unbearable, insolvency stands out as the major one. Even though the government claims to be providing credit facility through institutional channels, the number of farmers who could really access those facilities is very low. This creates the scope for entry of non institutional players who exploit the farmers taking advantage of their immediate credit needs. The government’s failure to extend agro credit to the needy farmers creates opportunity for greedy local money lenders to put them in a debt trap. Lack of storage and marketing facilities is another factor which compounds the problems of the farmers and prevent them from getting due prices for their produce. This leads to distress sales and under recovery of prices. It is high time; the government streamlines cooperative and micro financing sector with proper monitoring system to facilitate easy credit access to farmers. More cold storages and marketing societies for agro products need to be set up for preservation and marketing of their products.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 09:10:41 +0000
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