'No point in hanging ourselves...'

“People think we are rich and big farmers,” Dadasaheb Sapike said. “That’s the general view when they see our shade-nets. But come to our farms and you’ll see the bitter truth. We are in huge debt. And we can’t repay any of it.”

Dadasaheb was quietly marching alongside others at the farmers’ march that started on February 20 in Nashik. With him was Rajendra Bhagwat – both very different from the Adivasi and marginal farmers who formed the majority of the protestors. (The march was called off late at night on February 21 after the Maharashtra government gave an assurance that it will address all the pending demands of the farmers in a time-bound manner.)

The two farmers set up shade-nets around eight years ago. For the first two years they made profits, which encouraged them to expand from an acre to two acres each. “In 2009-10, when shade-nets and poly-houses multiplied in our area, the prices for high-end vegetables like capsicum, or for flowers, were better. But now prices have collapsed  [due to excess supply and fluctuating markets] and there’s absolutely no water,” Bhagwat said.

For five years, he and Sapike have incurred losses on their capsicum crop. But they are reluctant to speak about their debts. “It was difficult to come out in the open,” Bhagwat said, “because if relatives and friends know we are in debt, we fear it might affect our social status. But it is time we take our issues to the government.”

Several other farmers in Ahmednagar district and elsewhere who have installed shade-nets or poly-houses on their farms are reeling under mounting debts, and have abandoned their projects, Dadasaheb said. In his own village of Kankuri near Shirdi, he added, many are left with no money and cannot get loans from banks anymore. “It is a liquidity crisis, it is a crisis of water, it is a crisis of markets. We are stuck. I have a pension [he is a retired Navy clerk] to run my family, but others don’t have anything….”