From prosperity to a struggle for dignity

The farmers of Bundelkhand region in Madhya Pradesh are caught in a crisis. Thirty-nine out of 48 districts in Madhya Pradesh have been declared partially or fully drought affected. Secondly the state government has been ineffective in dealing with the situation – the Rs.24,000 crores that they have demanded for drought relief from the central government have been lost in politics between the two. More disturbing is the impending food crisis in the region and the discrepancy between the projected picture of agriculture in the state and the real story.

Persistent drought in Bundelkhand has resulted in loss of agricultural livelihood and food crisis in the region. Pic : Vikas Samvad.

Bundelkhand region covers a total of 13 districts from the two states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Of these, six districts are located in M.P. – Chattarpur, Tikamgarh, Panna, Sagar, Damoh and Datia. All are drought affected, but Chattarpur, Tikamgarh and Panna are especially hit. Failure in agriculture has become a cyclical phenomenon here. The region's economy is predominantly based on agriculture. Major crops being sown and cultivated here over the years have been jawar, bajara, kodo, kutki, gram, tuar, moong, urad, alsi, til, jute and vegetables.

The larger picture

A study conducted in the Bundelkhand region by the M.P. Right to Food Campaign and the M.P. Apda Niwaran Manch reveals astonishing facts about the actual plight of agriculture here, as told by the farmers themselves. In 2003-04 Bundelkhand region produced 2.45 million tonnes of food grains. This dropped down to 1.13 million tonnes in the production year 2006-07 registering a decline of 44.67 per cent in food grain production in the region.

As contrasted with this, the decline in production of all grains in the entire state of M.P. during the same period was 13.86 per cent. This clearly suggests that the Bundelkhand region of the state has alone accounted for nearly half of this decline. The yield has also gone down from 1035 kgs per hectare to 806 kgs per hectare during the same period.

The picture largely reflects two realities. First that the condition of agriculture, specially food grains production in these regions has deteriorated continuously during the last four-five years due to the inadequate irrigation facilities as a result of scanty rainfall and persistent drought situation. Second the face of agriculture has changed to a large extent because of a shift in cropping pattern driven by profit motive and government policies for agriculture and also the non-availability of sufficient water resources to irrigate the fields.

While the government chooses to remain ignorant of the real problem, crop failure in the drought stricken areas is not only forcing the villagers to migrate to nearby states in large numbers but is also giving birth to a number of other associated problems like debt, maintenance and survival of cattle, health issues, exploitation of different social groups like women, children, Dalits and tribals.

Migration has raised questions about the education and future of children who move to cities with their parents -- these include owners of 30-40 acres of land -- and are unable to attend school regularly or are even forced to discontinue their education completely. They avoid working in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme works, because it attacks their social status in the village society.

Ground realities

The official records of Tikamgarh district report 18 per cent cultivation of Rabi crop and 24 per cent cultivation of Kharif crop. The villagers claim that this figure is not more than 10 per cent for both the crops individually.

The Niwari block of district Tikamgarh has traditionally been considered one of the most prosperous parts of the district. In the past, the region produced enough vegetables both for domestic consumption and export. The village of Tila is reputed for its production of brinjal and gourd. Out of the 387 families in Tila Panchayat, 302 families have been cultivating vegetables as their primary occupation.

Till three years ago, upto 17 to 18 trucks of vegetables were transported to surrounding big cities like Jabalpur, Bhopal, Indore, Jhansi and Agra. But today, only one truck full of vegetables can be sent to these places in two days. The farmers estimate a plunge of 70 to 80 per cent in the production of vegetables like gourd, potato, capsicum and brinjal. They also tell that about 80 per cent farmers have stopped cultivating vegetables completely and this includes small and marginalised farmers.

Rampal Singh Ghosh, owner of 40 bighas of land in Tila, talks of the bounty of vegetables and wheat that was experienced in the past. The current situation is such that there has not been a single crop of gourd or potato in his 40 bighas for the past four to five years. Rampal Singh had taken a loan on his Kisan Credit Card (credit card for farmers) last year in the hope of repaying it as early as possible by the profit earned from his produce. However, he has not paid a single installment of the loan till date.

The once prosperous and self-sufficient farmers of Tila village have very little choice of livelihood left. They refuse to take up work under the EGS as they consider it below their dignity.

Water woes

The reason for such a decline as told by the farmers themselves is the lack of proper irrigation in this region. The whole of Bundelkhand is dependent on rains for irrigation both directly and indirectly. Though the major sources of irrigation in the region are wells, the water in the wells depends on rains. As per the official records, the region also recorded 349 mm rainfall in the year 2007, which is 64 per cent less than the normal 972 mm and it is continuously going down from 2003-04.

According to the records of Water Resource Department, in 2006, 65 per cent households in Tikamgarh district depended on wells for irrigation, 61 per cent in Chhatarpur and 44 per cent households in Panna district. However nearly all wells in the region have dried up in the past four to five years due to very little or no rainfall at all during this period.

According to figures obtained from Central Groundwater Board, water in 35.32 per cent wells of Tikamgarh has dropped further two metres while water in 8.86 per cent wells has slipped more than four metres of the original level in the last 10 years.

Under such conditions it is inconceivable for any farmer to be able to earn a living out of agriculture. Farmers like Lakhan Patel of Wigpur in the Laudi Block of Chhatarpur district have now found themselves in a debt trap after years of making a comfortable living from their farms. Lakhan Patel took a loan of Rs.3 lakhs in 2004, out of which he repayed an amount of Rs.1 lakh in the following year. Since then, due to crop failure year after year, he has not been able to pay back anything to the bank. As a result, his unpaid loan amount together with interest today stands more than the principal amount.

Lakhan Patel says that once there used to be about 70 to 80 quintals of produce in his farms, which would fetch him an income of Rs.1.5 lakhs. However in the last two years there has been zero earning out of the farm.

The condition of livestock is worsening too. Most families in the affected regions have either lost their cattle to drought or have set them free to find their own means of survival. As the villagers themselves struggle to live each day as it passes, the survival of their cattle is the last thing on their mind. Hakkim Singh Yadav of village Wigpur, who was once the owner of 37 cattle, unhappily tells that there are only seven left today.

The plight of livestock, agriculture or water supply in the villages however is not the end of problems for the villagers in such hard times. Rati Ram of Kena Village in the Niwari block of district Tikamgarh, owns two acres of land. The electricity bills debited to Rati Ram’s account are upwards of Rs.42,000 for the last six months.

However, the villagers report that there has been no power supply in the village since the last three years. In fact the power line in the village has been dismantled six years ago.

Slanted priorities

At a time when villagers are suffering without water and power, and the lack of investments in agriculture to get them these, the Government of Madhya Pradesh has been taking the state on a parallel track of industrialisation.

As many as 36 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), worth Rs. 29548.91 crore (about US $7.413 billion), were signed at Bundelkhand Investors' Meet at Sagar in April this year. A total number of 217 MoUs have been signed so far in the four investor meets (the other three were at Khajuraho, Indore, Jabalpur) where investments worth Rs. 245918.91 crore (about US $61.695 billions) have been proposed.

A majority of investors has preferred to invest in mineral-based industries like steel plants, cement, iron and coal etc., thus capitalising on the huge deposits of minerals in the region. The state government is also promising investors the availability of water, power and other policy support in the name of development.

However not a single sanction has been proposed in the agriculture sector.

We have often read in our schoolbooks that agriculture in India is a gamble of the monsoons, but we are never told the reality of the nexus of the market forces and the state that sit together on one side of the table to play the game. Add to this the now common phenomenon of drought, and the farmer is bound to lose.