Debt-ridden sugarcane farmers in distress, commit suicide in Karnataka

Karnataka's sugarcane farmers are reeling under debt. With industries defaulting on payments to the tune of over Rs 2900 crore over the last two years, the state has seen a spate of farmers' suicides in the last two months.

One of such farmers is Shivanna, a 36-year-old sugarcane farmer from Mandya in south Karnataka. His family has been inconsolable after he chose to take his own life.

"He had taken 100 tonnes of sugarcane to the sugar mill, but the factory sent him back. He had already taken too many loans. He went to the field, swallowed some pills and then called us up, we rushed there but couldn't save him," said Shivanna's father Kempegowda.

Unfortunately, Shivanna's death is not an isolated case. Just last week, a farmer set his sugarcane crop on fire and then jumped into the blaze while another attempted to ingest pesticides during a protest. Over the last two weeks, nearly 14 sugarcane farmers have taken their lives amid crashing prices, crippling debt and unpaid bills from sugarcane factories.

The Indian farmer they say is born in debt, lives in debt and dies in debt, a harsh truth closer home in Karnataka which is at the brink of a crisis in one of the most fertile regions of the state, the Cauvery belt.

Sugar mills owe farmers around Rs 2,500 crore since 2013, but haven't paid them a penny. Farmers have thus been surviving off money-lenders for the last few months, paying interest of over 30 per cent, even as the government struggles to rein in the loan sharks.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda said, "If any private money-lender tries to forcefully recover money or uses physical or verbal force, it will be treated as abetment to suicide."

Despite a bumper crop, farmers' hopes for a good price for their produce crashed as prices tumbled.

According to K S Puttanaiah, Karnataka Farmers' Sangh president, "We fight with nature, we fight for our markets, we fight against government policy, we fight against middlemen. From all four sides, we are cornered."

The state government has given assurances that sugar factories will now be arm-twisted into paying up the money they owe farmers by the end of July. However, that may be too late for many of such struggling families.