Budget 2008: Farmers all over are loving it

The entire village of Garhar in UP's Jalaun district is overjoyed. Now farmers here won't have to go to jail, thanks to P Chidambaram. But what's that got to do with the Budget? For years, farmers in this parched swathe of farmland haven't been able to repay loans. As a result, they've had to spend as much time in courtrooms and even prisons as they do in their fields. Now, the loan waiver has set them free. Up north in Lakhnour village near Mohali in Punjab, Jarnail Singh hadn't smiled for two years since he sold two acres of his 5-acre farm to pay off part of his loan of Rs 2 lakh. "If you are being truthful, all I can say is that this man (PC) has been heaven-sent. Our prayers have been answered," Jarnail Singh told a TOI reporter who sought reactions after giving him the news. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data from studies between 1997-2005 reveals that - and this is a conservative estimate - 1.5 lakh farmers committed suicide all over India with countless farmers abandoning agriculture. It's, therefore, understandable that the loan waiver for marginal and small farmers has been received with much relief in large parts of the country. While farmers in Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and to an extent, even Karnataka, are delighted with the proposal, the reactions are more than just muted in Vidarbha, the region of Maharashtra that has witnessed a rash of farmer suicides. One of the problems in Vidarbha is that nearly 50% of farmers have taken loans from private moneylenders because they are not entertained by scheduled banks. And it is mostly farmers in the grips of the village sahukar who have been driven to suicide. Ravikant Patil, a farmer living 35 km from Nagpur, says: "Unless one has sifarish (recommendation), one isn't entertained by regular banks. We have no option but to turn to private moneylenders." There is another problem, too - the two-hectare ceiling on land holding for loan waiver. Nearly all farmers TOI contacted in Vidarbha said the Budget had nothing for them since their average land-holding is seven hectares and their problem is low rates from farm produce which has made agriculture loss-making. Farmer leader Kishor Tiwari welcomed the waiver but demanded that the land holding limit of two hectares should be relaxed for Vidarbha. "Unless the limit is relaxed, only 40% of Vidarbha farmers would benefit as against 90% in western Maharashtra." Agrees Vijay Jawandhia: "Due to the harebrained government decision, a farmer owing Rs 2 lakh in western Maharashtra would get exemption while a farmer owing Rs 50,000 in Vidarbha would have to pay." But in Gujarat's Memar village in Bavla, near Ahmedabad, Ghanshyam Solanki is pleased - the finance minister has wiped out Solanki's debt of Rs 22,000. He says: "There are many others like me - some of whom could have been driven to suicide but for this waiver." Likewise, in Andhra Pradesh, Adem Muni Reddy in Tirupati rural mandal, who has a loan of Rs 30,000 and land around 3 acres, said: "The waiver has come as a boon." But Mohan Reddy in Jyothi village isn't happy. "I took a loan from State Bank, but it won't come under the waiver scheme (he has seven acres of land) even though I am a regular repayer of loans." In Bundelkhand's Jalaun village, suicides were becoming common. "It's too late for those of our kin who committed suicide, but the move will prevent many more from unnatural death," said Ajai Parsad in Garhar village. But, Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha state president Maruti Manpade has the last word on the matter: "The government should have waived off all loans of all farmers."