Farmer Aid

 

LET US HELP MITIGATE FARMERS’ SUICIDES IN KARNATAKA

Please donate any amount you can so that we can help our farmers who are doing an excellent job in producing crops to support the Society. Every dollar counts. Please open up your hearts and wallets and support this noble cause so that no farmer has to end his life which could be prevented. Jai Karnataka Maathe! Long live hard working farmers of Karnataka!

Thank you.

Donate Online using Secured Transaction
(Preferred Amount $25, $50, $100, Other)

In the past few years, suicide by farmers has reached an alarming stage, especially in Karnataka and Maharashtra. It is heart wrenching to see farmers, young and old alike, are forced to take this drastic step of committing suicide which can be avoided by concerted effort by the Government and the general public. Just see the recent article in ‘The Hindu’ about farmers’ suicides in Karnataka:


“Krishna, 32, a farmer in Singamaranahalli, about 30 km from Hunsur in Mysuru district, consumed pesticide and died in the first week of June. The sesame farmer with three acres of land could not survive the debt trap he was in. He had defaulted on repayment to a local cooperative bank, fallen into the clutches of moneylenders, the water table had dropped, and his borewells had run dry. Having lost all hope of repaying the loans, he decided to end it all”.
In the last fortnight alone, 50 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka. The State Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda admits “it is alarming”.


Some of the factors contributing to this unfortunate situation are:


1. Loan sharks charging 70-100 percent or more compound interest when farmers need money for buying seeds, fertilizers, etc. Farmers commit suicide even for taking very small amounts like 10 or 20 thousand rupees which rapidly adds up to a lac or more in 2-3 years.


2. Farmers take loans to meet the basic needs like educating their children, food, clothing, etc. during lean periods prior to getting income from the harvest. If they cannot return these exorbitant interest loans in time, they feel a sense of shame in the village and resort to suicide.


3. If they don’t get the anticipated harvest due to water shortage or other reasons, they have to resort to the loans. Banks don’t easily finance farmers to procure inputs to farming.


4. When there is a glut of crops like sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, and others, the mill owners take advantage and keep the price so low, the farmers income suffers.


The problems are therefore economic, social and greed of money lenders and mill owners. In an Agricultural country like India, this is a pathetic situation. Those of us who are fortunate and can afford to make contributions to stem this tide of farmers’ suicide should come forward and do our bit.
AKKA will work with reliable NGOs to address this problem as much as we can. We will try to establish a help line in Karnataka which can coordinate helping the farmers all over Karnataka after verifying the needs of each case.