Speaking after the consultation meet of chief ministers and officials of four states on farmers' suicides in Hyderabad on Monday, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said, "We have prepared a presentation on the package after consultation with agriculture ministry officials with senior officials of the four states."
"The presentation will be made to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission deputy chairman Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia in the presence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Water Resources Minsiter Saifuddin Soz and Health Minister Ambumani Ramdoss to give a final shape to the package. The Chief Ministers of four affected states will accompany me," he added.
Giving details of the suicides by farmers in the four states in the last five years (2001-02 to 2005-06), he said that 5,910 suicides were reported in Karnataka, 1,835 in Andhra Pradesh, 981 in Maharashtra and 201 in Kerala. He said that a few cases were reported in Punjab also.
He said that these tragic instances were indicative of the harsh and troublesome agrarian situation in these states. "Indebtedness, crop failure, declining profitability, lack of irrigation and weak risk management, alongwith some socio-economic reasons are cited as major causes of such tragedies," he explained.
Pawar said that the consultation was held on Monday in Hyderabad with the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Agriculture Minister of Karnataka and a senior bureaucrat from Kerala in pursuit of an assurance given by him in Parliament to announce a package for distressed districts where farmers' suicides were reported. The Central cabinet is expected to approve the package within 45 days.
He said that the Agriculture Ministry had selected the 30 districts in the four states where the incidence of suicides by farmers was exceptionally high. While the concerned states announced relief measures, including ex-gratia payment, the central government also took the problem seriously and decided to consider a farmers' rehabilitation package.
"I am of the firm view that unless the underlying causes of the agrarian problem are addressed, we would continue to witness such tragic happenings on a daily basis. Most of the 30 or more districts where incidences of suicides seem to be exceptionally high are practically crop-centric agriculture/ plantation areas under rainfed or dryland conditions with very little forward and backward linkages."
Refusing to spell out the financial cost of the special package, Pawar said that it could run into a few thousand crores of rupees. The proposed package would cover six issues-credit, insurance, irrigation, agricultural productivity, lack of extension services and lack of marketing infrastructure.
The proposals include providing insurance cover for agriculture, cattle and farmers' health. However, compensation would not be included in the package.
The package would address the issue of rate of interest on the credit to farmers, rescheduling and waiver of farm credit, improving the irrigation facilities as well as the sub-soil water through water re-charging and micro irrigation and supporting the state governments for irrigation projects.
