Rahul Maganti

Sharmila Joshi

Editor

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At around
7.30 a.m. on February 24 this year, 43-year-old Pandi Venkaiah drank pesticide
on his farm in Penugolanu village. He was alone, his family was at home. At
around 9 a.m., a few other farmers came across his dead body in the field. 

Venkaiah’s loans had spiralled to more than Rs. 17 lakhs
after a crushing loss of over Rs. 10 lakhs in just the 2016 agricultural season.
He owned an acre of land and leased seven more at an annual tenancy rate of Rs.
30,000 per acre. In September 2016, he sowed Rs. 1 lakh worth of chilli seeds
on four acres and cotton on the remaining four. “He invested 10 lakhs on the
crop,” says Seetha, 35, his wife. Part of the loan was taken from private moneylenders, and some of it was a gold loan on Seetha’s
few ornaments in the bank. 

By December 2016, documents at the collector’s office show, 87 farmers
from Penugolanu village in Gampalagudem mandal
of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh realised that their chilli crop
was failing. They had all purchased seeds from two local nurseries. “The mirchi
crop on [a total of] 162 acres failed. All the investment and labour just went
down the drain,” says 26-year-old Vadderapu Tirupathi Rao.

Three months before Venkaiah’s suicide, on November 22, 2017, Tirupathi Rao and two other farmers, Banala Naga
Poornayya, 32, and Ramayya, 35, had tried to kill themselves in Amaravati,
right in front of the new state assembly building. On that day, farmers who had suffered serious losses because of poor
quality seeds from the two nurseries had marched to Amaravati to protest against
the government’s inability to hold the nursery owners culpable. The police
arrested the farmers when they reached the assembly. Feeling helpless and
enraged, the three consumed pesticide right there.

Until 2016, mirchi had usually been a
profitable crop in this border region of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, known
for its chillis. Most farmers here grow the teja mirchi.   In 2016, the market
price was an all-time high, even touching Rs. 15,000 per quintal, around double
the usual. The high rates in the first half of 2016 increased the demand for mirchi
seeds in September-October 2016. And a bollworm attack on the cotton crop
forced even more farmers to try their luck with mirchi. 

But then the yield turned out to
be really poor – for the first time ever in Penugolanu that farmers can recall – because of the bad seeds sold by the two
nurseries to cash in on the huge demand.

Farmers in this region usually buy high-yielding hybrid mirchi
seeds from nurseries, who in turn purchase them from agro-companies. Non-hybrid
varieties no longer grow well here because of the impact on the soil of excessive
use of hybrids and fertilisers, among other reasons. And for the same reason, neither
can the farmers save a portion of their robust indigenous varieties from their
own crops for next year’s sowing – as they did in the past, says Nagaboina
Rangarao of the All India Kisan Sabha. In 2016, because of the high demand, two
local nurseries sold low-yielding non-hybrid seeds to 87 farmers. The seeds all
look the same, so the farmers went ahead and sowed them. But the yields turned
out to be stunningly lower.

The average per-acre mirchi yield in this region is 35 to 40
quintals. “But last year [September 2016 to January 2017], the 10 acres I
cultivated together produced just 20 quintals of mirchi. The highest yield was 3
quintals (per acre) on Ramayya’s farm,” says Poornayya. He had taken the 10
acres on lease in 2016, but the failed mirchi crop forced him to cut back. “I took just
3 acres on lease this year [September 2017 to January 2018] since I already have
a debt of over 12 lakh rupees,” he adds. 

Mirchi is a
labour intensive crop, on which cultivators invest Rs. 2.5 to 3 lakhs per acre
– on seeds, fertiliser and the painstaking sowing and picking. “The farmers had
already spent over 1.5 lakh per acre before they realised that the crop was failing
due to the spurious seeds,” Poornayya adds. “On top of that, most of us are
tenant farmers and we have to pay tenancy to the landlords irrespective of the
failed crop.” 

The tenant farmers
did not have access to institutional credit because they don’t have Loan
Eligibility Cards from the state’s Agriculture Department. The card enables  farmers who
don’t own any land to access some sort of institutional credit.  One such tenant farmer, Devara Nagarjuna, 50,
says, “I now have a total debt of 10 lakh at an interest rate of 60 per cent,
part of it from the very people who sold us the seeds.” Devara lost Rs. 5 lakhs
during the 2016-17 agricultural season due to the bad seeds. “They take our
fingerprints on empty promissory notes while giving seeds, pesticides and
fertilisers and write any [inflated] amount,” he says. “Since they are also the
middlemen who purchase our produce, they deduct the debt and interest and pay
us back the rest.”

The
‘they’ he is referring to are the nursery owners. The seeds had been sold by
the Abhayanjaneya Nursery owned by Nagalla Murali, and the Lakshmi Tirupathamma
Nursery, owned by Eduru Satyanarayana Reddy. 
These outlets sell seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, and also give
high-interest crop loans to farmers who don’t have access to institutional
credit; the nursery owners are also often the agents for the mirchi
market yard in Guntur. 

Murali
is the village president of the Telugu Desam Party and a close aide of Devineni
Uma Maheswara Rao, Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation; Satyanarayana
is a leader of the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu
Congress Party (YSRCP), formed by Jaganmohan Reddy. He is also an
aide of Kokkiligadda Rakshana Nidhi, YSRCP member of the legislative assembly
from Tiruvuru (the constituency in which Penugolanu is located). 

Since December 2016 the 87 farmers – along with a few others in
solidarity – have organised  dharnas
and protests in front of the mandal revenue office in
Gampalagudem, the revenue divisional office in Nuzvid, the collector’s office
in Machilipatnam, and the Agriculture Department’s offices in Guntur and in
Amaravati.  Later this month, they are
planning a padayatra,
to continue the agitation.

The
failed mirchi
crop has brought them together under the Andhra Pradesh Tenant Farmers’
Association, affiliated to the All India Kisan Sabha.  “We are fighting for compensation from the
nurseries,” says Poornayya, who is leading the agitation against the nursery
owners. He spent 24 days in Nuzvid sub-jail and 11 cases have been registered against
him.

In March
2017, the collector of Krishna district, B. Lakshmikantham, ordered an
investigation by a District Level Compensation Committee comprising scientists
and agricultural officers. The committee’s report states that the seeds are indeed
bogus and that the nursery owners should pay a compensation of Rs. 91,000 per
acre of lost crop. Both the nurseries together owe Rs. 2.13 crores to the 87 farmers.


In
January 2018, the collector ordered the nurseries to pay the compensation. But
the amount remains elusive even after the farmer’s next crop was harvested in
early 2018 – planted with seeds from other nurseries. When I spoke to B. Lakshmikantham, he told me, &quot;We have submitted our response to the High Court. Once the court clears it, we will use the Revenue Recovery Act and seize the properties of the owners and pay the compensation to the farmers.&quot; 

“We
have met the agricultural minister [S. Chandramohan Reddy] four times, the
minister in-charge of the district [Devineni Uma] twice, and the collector
eight times. We lost count of the number of times we met the mandal
revenue officer and agricultural officer,” says Tirupathi Rao, the young farmer
who attempted suicide. “We were arrested many times when we went to protest.
It’s been more than 18 months since our crops failed and we are yet to receive even
one rupee of compensation.”

When I ask Ch. Rangaiah, the revenue divisional officer of
Nuzvid division, which covers Penugolanu village, about the compensation, he says, &quot;After the
collector ordered the compensation of Rs. 91,000 per acre, the nurseries
approached the high court. Since the matter is sub-judice now, we will have to
wait for the court to rule.&quot; 

The
lawyer arguing the case on behalf of the farmers in the Andhra Pradesh high
court, Potturi Suresh Kumar, says, “The liability to check the usage of
spurious seeds lies with the state. Why isn’t there a mechanism or a law to
govern nurseries? A Nursery Act should be enacted and all the nurseries must be
brought under its ambit.” 

But
Venkaiah lost his life in the absence of any such protection. And the other
farmers are still reeling. “No one should be born as a farmer in this country.
We feed the nation and every government claims that they are farmer friendly,
but we are remembered only during elections,” says Tirupathi Rao.  “What other option did we have to make our
voice heard? And what hope of justice? It was a spontaneous decision to commit
suicide despite the thoughts of my wife and three-year-old child… It’s better
to die than be hounded by moneylenders every day.” With that, 26-year-old Rao
bursts into tears.

Mirchi is not so hot anymore in Penugolanu

চোখের জলে লংকা চাষের দাম দিচ্ছেন পেনুগোলানুর চাষিরা

پینوگولانو: خودکشی کرنے کو مجبور مرچ کے کسان

பெனுகோலானுவில் மிளகாய் இனி காரமாக இருக்கப்போவதில்லை

ପେନୁଗୋଲାନୁ ଲଙ୍କାରେ ଆଉ ରାଗ ନଥିଲା

पेनुगोलानूत आता मिरचीची चव उतरली

Penugolanu

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Mirchi is not so hot anymore in Penugolanu

Eighteen months after a failed chilli crop, 87 farmers in Andhra Pradesh are yet to receive compensation. Crushed by debt, Pandi Venkaiah killed himself in February, the others are still struggling with their losses

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