Compensation fails to reach kin of farmers

Pochubai, wife of deceased farmer Perumalla Istari

The Government order (GO) No . 194 issued by the state government enhancing the amount of compensation of Rs 6 lakh to families of the farmers who committed suicides has failed to enhance the confidence of the bereaved families in Adilabad district of Telangana.

Earlier, the government used to give Rs 1.50 lakh compensation under GO No . 421 to the families who committed suicide. The state government has issued GO. 194 in October 2015 with the retrospective effect from the formation of the Telangana state on June2.

The state government has failed to implement G0. 194 which was issued enhancing the compensation Rs 6 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh to the family of the deceased farmers who committed suicide due to mounted debts.

So far, compensation was sanctioned only to 38 deceased farmer families where as many as 222 farmers committed suicides in the Adilabad district since the formation of the state.

Suryavamshi Parameshwar committed suicide by hanging himself unable to handle debts in Tadithnoor in Narnoor mandal. Local Tahsildar visited deceased farmer’s home and collected details but nothing has been done as far as sanctioning compensation.

V.S Krishna, state general secretary of the Human Rights Forum (HRF) said the state government has literally failed to implement the GO No.194 issued enhancing compensation.

“In most cases, members of the divisional level committees led by RDO formed to verify the authenticity of the farmer suicide are not visiting the deceased’s house instead depending the local Tahsildar’ reports which are most of the time being rejected at divisional level”, he observed adding that same is the situation in all the district except Hyderabad and Medak.

Tenant farmers were 80 percent among the total farmers who committed suicides in the Telangana state and compensation was being denied to tenant farmers citing the lack of land ownership documents.

B. Kondal Reddy, representative of the Rythu Swarajya Vedika said compensation  was sanctioned to only three farmers who committed suicide from Utnoor division out of total sanctioned 38 in the district though farmer suicides were high in number in Utnoor division.

Kavitha, the wife of the deceased Suryavamshi Parameshwar who committed suicide in 2015, said they have cultivated cotton in the 10-acre land out of total 15 acres they had and there was only 2 quintal of cotton production in acre due to severe drought and added that they have lost a cotton crop in the last two seasons.  

She said they have incurred a huge loss due to crop loss and mounted debts due to a huge investment in cotton cultivation.

Same is the case with the Rahith Ramdas who committed suicide in Jaithram Thanda in Narnoor mandal and also Perumalla Isthari of Vaghapur of Adilabad mandal who committed suicide due to crop loss and mounted debts.

TS fails to provide jobs, people back to gudumba

Brewing Gudumba (illicitly distilled liquor) in the interior areas is continuing despite officials declaring district as Gudumba free long back. People affected by drought continued their traditional manufacturing of Gudumba  as a livelihood.

Many incidents of manufacturing gudumba are reported in the coal belt areas in the district and this is mainly in a village in the mandals along the river Pranahitha and the Godavari and also in coal belt areas of the western region of the Adilabad district.

The state government has failed to provide an alternative employment to the people who gave up their traditional brewing gudumba and again they have started it to make both ends meet in the drought situation. 

The local police have been conducting raids on Gudumba manufacturing units while the excise police have become inactive.

Police conducted raids in Marripelli village and also in Kalvada, Devulaguda and Lambadi Thanda villages in Dahegoan mandal recently. 

Police conducting raids regularly and destroying thousand of liters of ‘Bellampanakam’ and seizing gudumba in huge quantity, Vehicles used for transportation has become regular phenomena in the east district. Police seized Gudumba packets in their raids on gudumba manufacturing units.

It is surprising to know that police are seizing the manufacturing material from the same villages again and again and this means the villagers have not given up the brewing of gudumba despite regular raids and counseling them against brewing gudumba.       

Gudumba is being packed in sachets so that they can easily transport to the selected locations and places and it is found that women are playing an active role in transporting the Gudumba to other places in the district and to villages in bordering Maharashtra. There is a liquor prohibition in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts of Maharashtra bordering Adilabad.            

The traditional manufacturers of gudumba stopped brewing liquor with the state government’s promise to provide them with an alternative employment to compensate the income they lose by giving up brewing gudumba. But the state government has failed to fulfill its promise till now.

In the meanwhile, the situation has turned from bad to worse with the severe drought conditions in most of the villages.

On condition of anonymity, a woman of Marripelli in Dahegoan mandal said, what should they do to make both ends meet other than brewing Gudumba or else they will die due to starvation as there are no works under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Rural Scheme (MGNREGS) and wages were pending for a long time and there are no crops.

Unity will get you respect : Kodandaram

TJAC Chairman Prof M.Kodandaram appealed to the farmers to unite to force the government to change its policies in their favor.

Political parties and governments will not respect farmers unless they unite and form their associations, he said.

Prof Kodandaram demanded that state and Central governments should declare the Adilabad and Khammam drought affected and give all mandatory benefits to the people. 

Participating in interaction with farmers and villagers at Tejapur village in Boath mandal as part of Karuvu Adhyayana yatra, Prof Kodandaram said farmers will make any impact on political parties and governments only when they are organized and emerge as a strong force.

He said political parties listen to farmer’s woes and demands only when political parties consider them as a significant vote bank, and this was possible if farmers unite.   

Prof Kodandaram questioned the farmers why not they form Rythu JACs when their women had formed SHGs and were making efforts for their empowerment bargaining with the state government.

Kodandaram made it clear that nothing concrete came out of discussions concerning farmers and Agriculture crisis and drought held in Assembly sessions, and they were waiting for the government’s decision on the steps to be taken for the welfare of the farmers on the directions of High Court.

He said farmers should tell the ill effects of the drought they have been experiencing to state and central governments because the governments declared that there was no drought in Adilabad and Khammam districts in the Telangana. 

Farmer suicides on the rise in Adilabad district

  Rythu leaders collecting information about deceased  farmer 

The farmers who lost their standing crops and did not get remunerative prices to their crops are committing suicides. Farmer suicides are the rise in the last two months with changed weather conditions.

They say there is no use giving uninterrupted power supply for nine hours to agriculture when the area of cultivation has reduced to minimal in Rabi.

According to sources, eight farmers committed suicide in January, 10 in February and five farmers in March.

Most of the farmers are in a deep depression with the successive drought conditions and its impact on their life.

Rythu Athma Hatyala Nivarana committee district convenor Sangepu Borranna said farmers’ suicides may rise further before the June as weather conditions seem unfavorable.

Farmers are under pressure from various corners including private moneylenders, bankers, and drought: he said and added that there was a huge delay in payments to farmers for red gram purchased by Markfed.   

Young farmer Bahune Srinivas, 27, unmarried, committed suicide by hanging himself in his Agriculture field in Sundaragiri village in Jainad mandal on March 30. He had taken up agriculture in their six- acre land after his father died last year.

There are severe allegations that the banks are not extending required amount of finances to the small and marginal farmers whereas influential big farmers are getting larger funding.

More over the institutional support regarding loaning is very much needed to purchase seeds,  agriculture operations from April month itself but most of the banks start loan disbursement in the middle of the May or even in June. Meantime, farmers approach intermediaries and take loans at exorbitant interests. 

Conflict on water to the fore

Thorn fence erected around the stream  in Kumari village 

Drought conditions, steep fall in ground water table and dried up water bodies has created human- animal conflict for drinking water in the district.

Villagers erected thorn fences around the streams to prevent cattle from entering and drinking water in Kumari village in Neredigonda mandal. The same is happening in many villages in the district.

Farmers are erecting a fencing to save their standing crops while people and cattle are struggling for drinking water with the rising temperatures and fast approaching summer. Both animals and people are dependent on these water bodies for drinking water.

Farmer Satish of Kumari village said, “We are facing an acute drinking water problem this summer following the successive droughts and both cattle and people are fighting for drinking water and this is unavoidable situation”.            

On the other hand, water crisis has created differences among the people of neighboring villages Kajjarla and Khodad in Talamadugu mandal on releasing water from the tank to downstream for drinking water purpose.

The tank was located on villager outskirts of Kajjarla and villagers depending on the tank to give water to their standing groundnut crop cultivated in upstream by agriculture motors.

The Kajjarla farmers alleged that villagers of Khodad taking water through ‘Thoomu’ without taking permission from officials concerned. 

Kajjarla villagers refused to release water to downstream from tank while Khodad villagers demand for releasing water for drinking purposes and to save the cattle. People of both the villagers had complained to their respective Tahsildars on the water issue February8.

Spurious seeds add to woes of farmers in TS

RANC member collecting details from wife of a deceased farmer   

The New Year has not brought about any change of fortune for the farmers in Adilabad district of Telangana. Four farmers including a woman farmer, have committed suicide in the past seven days.

Matters appear set to go from bad to worse, with the prevailing drought conditions suggesting that crops could fail even in Rabi, like they did in Kharif last year.

According to Rythu Athmahatyala Nivarana committee, as many as 101 farmers ended their lives in 2015, while 73 committed suicide in the six months of 2014 ( June 2 to December 31) in the Adilabad district.         

Repeated crop failure and inability to repay the loans taken from the banks and private money lenders are primary causes of the distressed farmers taking the extreme step.

This year, the first farmer to end his life was Pandiri Peddaposhanna, 55 of Borigoan village in Sarangapur mandal who consumed pesticide on Jannuary2 in the New Year.

Subsequently, Chedigiri Chandrabai,65, of Vaddadi village in Tamsi ended her life  on January 5, followed by Gone Ramdas,48, Masala (B) village in Bela mandal on January 6 and Donipelli Mallaiah ,55, of Gurija village of Gudihathnoor mandal on January7.

Peddaposhanna had one acre of land and had taken another five acres on lease to cultivate cotton. He incurred huge loss as crop failed. A similar fate befell Mallaiah, who owned eight acres and took another 10 acres on lease.

Rythu Athmahatyala Nivarana Committee, district convenor Sangepu Borranna, said that as many as 10 farmers committed suicide in December, 2015 while four members in the New Year till January7.

‘Farmers had incurred huge loss this time because of sowing spurious seeds in addition to the drought conditions. As many as 74 verities of spurious cotton seed were detected in the state, 12 of them found in Adilabad district’, he said.

Young farmers who taken up agriculture with passion these days have lost hope and committed suicides.

According to Agriculture experts, enormous use of pesticides and fertilizers and huge investments and spurious seeds weaken these young farmers in particular and farmers in general.

The soil loses fertility with the much use of fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers spraying pesticides and applying fertilizers to the crops indiscriminately by competing with one another in the rural areas feeling that they will get more yield but the soil become toxic.

The state government has issued GO: 194 extending Rs 6 lakh compensation to the family of each farmer who committed suicide. However, in most cases, the mandal level committee is rejecting the claim of and reports are not reaching the division level committee.

Farmer leaders want the state government to take into consideration the gram sabha and police report instead of three-man committee report to release compensation to the deceased farmer’s families.

There are allegations that even some of the local ruling party leaders are making efforts to project the farmer suicides differently with the opinion that their government will be blamed for the farmers’ suicides. 

Adivasis seek state aid for Dandari fete

Severe drought conditions and failure of crops forced the headmen and Sarpanches of the Adivasi gudems to approach the ITDA, Utnoor for the first time seeking financial assistance to celebrate their traditional Dandari festivities during Diwali in Adilabad of Telangana.

Adivasis claim that they are not in a position to celebrate Dandari due to failure of the crops and mounted debts and hence needed financial aid to celebrate the festival.

Headmen of the 130 Adivasi gudems had submitted petitions to the ITDA officials seeking sanction of funds to celebrate Dandari during Diwali, which is a major festival for Adivasis.

They have appealed to state government to sanction funds for them and make arrangements for the celebrations of the Dandari on the lines of Bathukamma for which the state government had made elaborate arrangements across the state.

The leaders claimed that they are forced to seek financial aid as they lost two crops and are unable to clear debts they took from the various sources.  

Rumours of aid from state put farmers's kin in trouble

Water crisis looms large

The water crisis is looming large on Adilabad district much before the onset of summer as the ground water table is at an abysmal low of 0.5 meters. 

The officials and elected representative to not have any clear action plan so far to tackle the drinking water problems in the district.

The crisis is worse in the tribal areas but the governing body meeting of the ITDA, Utnoor , held recently, did not take any decision on ht action plan.

Deputy Director, Groundwater department G. Kumaraswamy said in 2014, there was 760 mm rainfall recorded against an average rainfall of 1,147 mm recorded in 2014, which means there was 35 percent deficit rainfall. People in Utnoor and Adilabad divisions, Tanoor, Mudhole, Bhainsa mandals in Nirmal division are already facing the worst water crisis.              

Farmers accuse CCI of scam

Farmers for hike in MSP to cotton

With rising costs due to drought-like conditions, cotton farmers demanded that the Centre announce a bonus on the already declared MSP of Rs 4,050 per quintal for kharif 2014-15. They said Rs 6,000 per quintal would be the ideal MSP for their produce.

The farmers said they can be bailed out of troubles only if they get a good MSP as they had already incurred heavy loss due to crop failure. It is expected that this time the harvesting period would be delayed by two months due to late sowing. Cotton was sown in 3.10 lakh hectares in Adilabad district.

Farmers said they got nearly Rs 4,000 per quintal for cotton last year in the open market but the same price would not be sufficient this year, due to the heavy rise in investment cost this kharif. 

However, it is expected that the private cotton traders are likely to offer good price for cotton than the MSP announced by the central government as the cotton yield is likely to drop heavily this year, when compared to last year.

The cotton farmers want the state government to mount pressure on the central government seeking a hike in the MSP for cotton. The farmers said they should be given at least Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 per quintal in the open market to bail them out of debts. The central government announced an MSP of Rs 4,050 for fine quality cotton and Rs 3,750 for medium quality for kharif 2014-15.

Kotnak Ramesh of Ruyyadi village in Talamadudu mandal said the Centre should doubt the present MSP to save the distressed farmers. He said he went for a third showing in his 20 acres and that seeds germinated only in 6 acres. He said he had incurred a loss of Rs 70,000 due to crop failure.

There are many other farmers like Ramesh who have pinned hopes on the announcement of bonus on cotton by the Centre.

Teak flowers replace Gunugu due to drought conditions

The existing drought conditions created shortage of ‘gunugu’ (Celosia argetea) flowers which are widely used in preparing Bathukanna idols. So women chose to replace those flowers with that of teak (Tectonia grandis).

The ‘Gunugu’ flowers are mostly found at the edges of agriculture fields but this time, there are not many of the plants due to the dry conditions.

So, women switched to using teak flowers which add to the beauty of the flower arrangement. Generally, teak flowers are not used in preparation of Bathukamma idols but with women preparing it, the demand for teak flowers has risen this season.

Mekala Sujatha of Utnoor said she, along with her sisters, collected teak flowers due to shortage of ‘gunugu’ and that teak flowers had enhanced the beauty of her Bathukamma idol.

“Gunugu flowers are really an essential part of Bathukamma idol but due to the shortage of the flowers, we were forced to go for teak flowers” , she said adding that even their relatives in Karimnagar had taken then flowers in a mini- van from Adilabad. 

The ‘gunugu’ flowers which usually do not cost much are being sold at Rs 1 a flower this year. Many of the idols are being prepared using marigold, colored teak twigs and other flowers which are widely available.

Drought fails to dampen enthusiasm of Adivasis

Adivasis performing puja to Gussadi caps

Adivasis are spending a lot on making Gussadi caps (made of peacock feathers), which are worn during Gussadi dance, performed as part of Diwali celebrations in the Adilabad district of Telangana.

The Adivasis are showing interest and enthusiasm in buying the peacock feathers despite loss due to drought conditions. The money Adivsis are spending on Gussadi caps is a big amount when compared to financial status.

Adivasis wearing ‘Gussadi caps’ are Gussadis . A group of Adivasis wearing the Gussadi caps and performing Gussadi dance are called Dandari.

According to the tradition, Adivasis will collect peacock feathers from jungles. But these days, due to deforestation, they are purchasing the feathers from shops.

Some of the Adivasis, especially those residing near towns and close too plain areas, are not taking the pain to collect every feather of peacock that drops from the birds’ body. Instead, they are purchasing the feathers from shops.

The Adivasis used to collect the peacock feathers when they took the cattle for grazing and the elders used to prepare the caps, each one consisting of nearly 1,000 feathers. Each new Gussadi cap costs a minimum of Rs 7,000.                                   

                                                                    

Cotton yield drops by 60 pc in Kharif

Cotton farmers are the worst hit this kharif what with the cotton bolls getting withered due to pest attack in the Adilabad district which might lead to a drastic fall in the yield.

Cotton was sown in 3.33 lakh hectares in Adilabad district this karif and some of the farmers were even forced to go for sowing for a fourth time due to drought conditions which resulted in a rise in the investments. 

However, the problems of the farmers continued even when the plants were growing.

The dry weather and erratic power supply led to damage of the standing crop. Farmers are likely to get only 30-40 percent yield this kharif which might not enable them get back the invested amount at least, forget about the profits.

Further, the low price being offered by the private cotton traders is adding to their woes. The private traders are offering just Rs 3,700 per quintal cotton while the farmers had invested nearly Rs 20,000 on cultivation of the crop in an acre.

When provided with the irrigation facility, farmers used to get an average of 10 quintals cotton per acre in the black soil but this year, they might get only 4-5 quintals.

In a rain-fed land, farmers used to get 4 quintals of cotton but this year, they are expected to get only 2 quintals per acre which means they would be forced incur a loss of Rs 10,000 per acre.  

Kodicharla Vishswanath, a farmer of Anandpur village in Jainad madnal, said there was only 2 quintals yield per acre in his three- acre cotton farm and that he had suffered huge loss this season.

Similar situation is prevailing in many places in Adilabad division, where cotton cultivation is predominant, even though it was grown in other areas in the district.

It is only handful of farmers, having adequate irrigation facilities, who got a considerable yield in Tamsi, Talamadugu, Jainad and Adilabad mandals.

The late sowing and drought conditions affected the growth of the cotton plants, bolls and it even delayed the harvesting.