Wednesday, July 5 2006 12:45 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Farmers in Maharashtra's Vidharbha region, India's orange bowl, continue to kill themselves due to debt and depression, notwithstanding relief measures announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

With the core problems still looming, four more farmers have ended their lives in the region, to take the total number of suicides since June 2005 to 612 a statistic deeply embarrassing to the central and state governments.

"The prime minister identified the lack of proper irrigation as the root cause of our region's woes, apart from the debt trap and crop failures," said Anand Subedar, an organic farmer from the Yavatmal district.

"But an apathetic state government has overlooked the need for reasonable prices for our yield. The relief package can provide only temporary help. What we need is a long-lasting solution," Subedar told sources on phone.

"In most cases, a farmer takes a loan only to pay a previous high-interest loan. With cotton, the favourite crop, failing to fetch the right price, our miseries multiply every year," he said.

During his two-day visit to the area last week, Manmohan Singh who was moved by the sight of weeping farmers - identified several causes for what he said was a 'crisis'.

He announced a Rs.37.5-billion relief package.

"The primary causes seem to be the continual crop failure, low yields, poor irrigation, medical expenses, cost of weddings in families, delays in getting electricity connections and un-remunerative prices," he said Saturday in Nagpur, the main city in a region known for its bountiful production of juicy oranges.

But farmers and social activists point out that the Maharashtra government's advice to farmers in November against repaying loans taken from unauthorised private moneylenders suddenly stopped the cash flow.

"Whatever little relief came from the banks and farms societies have also dried up," lamented Subedar.

"Even private money lenders have stopped extending credit to the farmers for fear of facing police cases," he said.

Take the case of Vasant Bhujbal, a farmer from Dharamgaon village. Since he needed money urgently to repay a moneylender, he went to a credit society as the local cooperative bank refused money.

From the Rs.30,000 loan he took from the credit society, Bhujbal paid Rs.15,000 to the moneylender, and wants to use the remaining money to grow cotton, unaware of the debt trap laid out before him.

"By March 2007 Bhujbal will have to repay the principal along with aN 11-percent interest - all this from his three-acre plot. If he fails to repay, he can never get a loan to grow a fresh crop," pointed out social worker Vishwas Kute.

"His only option would be to go back to the private money lender and the vicious cycle will continue. What the government needs is to formulate a crop insurance policy, accessible to all farmers, covering a wide range of risks," Kute added.

The issue has also taken political overtones. Maharashtra's opposition combine of Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena has demanded that the state waive all loans to debt-ridden farmers in the region.

But Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has so far rejected the opposition's demand and maintains that one-crop pattern adopted by Vidarbha farmers was one the main reasons for their delicate financial condition.

"The government would try to provide additional sources of income, better irrigation facilities and draw up a plan for agro-industries in the region as a long-term solution," has been Deshmukh's reply to the state assembly.

Emphasising the need to strengthen the cooperative movement in Vidarbha and to provide a safety net to farmers, the chief minister also increased its earlier relief package to Rs.13.31 billion from Rs.10.75 billion.

But farmers, social activists and bankers feel that while these steps may induce confidence among farmers, it would have little impact on the banking system that has taken a hit due to waiver of loans.

"The economics simply does not work out. Even if a farmer gets a bumper crop, at the end of the year, he has to repay the principal and a huge interest," said a manager of a central cooperative bank.

"Then there are other expenses in the family to take care of. For all these basic necessities, the farmer is left with little cash and has to take a fresh loan. This cycle is never ending," he said.

"As a result, the banking system takes a hit in fact, the loan recovery in this region is a mere 30 to 35 percent," he said.