Indian PM to announce relief measures to help indebted farmers

INDIA: India’s prime minister was expected to announce relief measures Friday for villagers in western India amid a spike in suicides among farmers burdened by debt and crop failure.

Farm activists have asked the government to take steps such as building roads, water tanks and irrigation canals to help farmers in the northern part of Maharashtra state, where they say some 600 farmers have committed suicide since last year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told state-run Doordarshan TV that he would announce the relief package on a visit to Koleghari and other villages in Maharashtra later Friday.

But Singh’s visit comes too late for people like Prakash Pawar, who said his father swallowed insecticide and died last month after being wracked with worry about repaying a loan of 37,000 rupees (US$822, euro685) to a government bank.

“I wish the prime minister visited before my father died,” said the 26-year-old Pawar, who said he inherited barren, brown land that has failed to yield an adequate cotton crop for the past four years - not to mention the bill for his father’s debts.

India’s agriculture is largely dependent on seasonal monsoon rains, but erratic rainfall and crippling water shortages over the past five years have caused thousands of debt-burdened farmers to take their lives in Maharashtra and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Also, farmers say they have been paying more for electricity, fertilizer and loans, but crop prices have risen more slowly, causing them to be trapped in a vicious cycle of debt.

“The government must protect farmers till they become self-reliant and get good yields from their land,” said farm activist Vijay Jawandhia.

Koleghari,Friday, AP