Indian Vital Statistics : Fatal Figures about our FARMERS and OUR AGRICULTURE

* Hardly 10 per cent of Indian farmers are covered by crop insurance.
* Debt drove nearly 1 lakh members of farming community to commit suicide between 1998 and 2003, says a government report.
* 17,000 farmers and their kin killed themselves each year for six years.
* 12% of all suicides in the country was in the farming community.
* 2002 worst year. 16% of suicides among farmers.
* Agriculture provides nearly 600 million direct and another 200 million indirect jobs.
* The total annual rural debt of Punjab was Rs 24,000 crore in 2003-04 -- is more than its gross annual earnings from agriculture. (Source: The Telegraph, April 24, 2006)
* There is a total of about 455 million acres of land that is cultivated in India and only about a third of it is covered by irrigation.
* The four states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala have recorded over 8,900 suicides between 2001-2002 and 2005-2006. * 70% of the Andhra's 78 million people are dependent on agriculture.
* Due to the acute distress, more than 1500 farmers committed suicide, mainly in Wayanad district, which is unprecedented in the history of Kerala.
* Rural development expenditure as percentage of GDP between 1985-1990 was 14.5%, which came down to 5.9% in 2000-01. * The expenditure on agriculture research is only around 0.3 per cent of GDP.

From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha

From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha
From Seeds of Suicide to Seeds of Hope: Navdanya's Intervention to Stop Farmers' Suicides in Vidharbha The increasing costs of production and the falling farm prices that go hand in hand with globalisation and corporate hijack of seed supply, combined with the decline in farm credit is putting an unbearable debt burden on farmers. The lure of huge profits linked with clever advertising strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries are forcing farmers into a chemical treadmill and a debt trap. It has been witnessed that across the country, farmers are taking the desperate step of ending their life. The pesticides, which had created debt, also became the source of ending indebted lives. More than 150,000 farmers have committed suicide in India due to [Photo] distortions introduced in agriculture as a result of trade liberalisation. More than 20,000 farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh alone. After the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2006, the suicide has increased alarmingly, reaching more than 1400 with debt trap cotton farmers putting an end to their lives in Vidharbha region alone. [Photo] Navdanya has been monitoring the impact of trade liberalisation and seed monopoly by seed giants on Indian farmers and Indian agriculture. To stop the genocide of our farmers and reclaim our seed and food sovereignty, Navdanya launched the Bija Yatra on 9th of May 2006 to mark 150 years of our struggle for freedom. The Yatra started from Sevagram, Maharashtra, the place of Gandhiji's Ashram. The Yatra was concluded on 26th May in Bangalore. The Yatra covered Amravati, Yavatmal,Nagpur in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, Adilabad, Warangal, Karimnagar, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, and Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Hosepet, Chitradurg and Bangalore in Karnataka. These are the regions where farmers have become locked into dependence on corporate seeds supply for growing cash crops integrated to world markets, which is leading to a collapse in farm prices due to 400 billion dollars subsidies in rich countries.Apart from providing guidance and help to the farmers for the revival of agriculture, Navdanya, under the "Asha ke Beej" (Seeds of Hope) program, distributed the indigenous variety of seeds to the farmers and encouraged them to shift to organic and sustainable agriculture. More than 6000 farmers were distributed indigenous seeds. Navdanya also realized that one of the crisis farmers were facing was a seed famine created by Monsanto. Navdanya therefore started a seed bank in Kalaspur village. And on 2nd and 3rd June seeds were distributed from the seed bank in villages in Vidharbha. Navdanya is committed to ending the vicious cycle of violence in agriculture, which is leading to farmers' suicides. We are committed to strengthening the virtuous cycles of peace based on cooperation with nature and among communities to promote a sustainable and life enhancing food system. During the yatra, Navdanya took a pledge [Photo] To protect our freedom and our lives by defending seed sovereignty through chemical free and GMO free ecological and sustainable farming. More than 10,000 farmers have taken pledge to conserve, rejuvenate and protect their biodiversity. To create GMO free, patent free, debt free and suicide free villages. As a result of Navdanya's joint initiative with Vidharbha Organic Farmers Association and Vidharbha Jan Andolan, Kolzari, Kalaspur and Goi villages have adopted to organic farming

INORA - Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture in Pune,

INORA - Institute of Natural Organic Agriculture in Pune, a leading
non-profit for organic agriculture in India, helped 400 farmers in
1996 establish wormeries and planned to help 600 more in 1997.  The
goal of the wormeries is production of vermicompost biofertilizers to
enhance soil quality and productivity.  Soils in India are
impoverished of organic matter due to neglect and dependence on
chemical fertilizers.  The climate itself is harsh on soil organic
matter, with hot dry conditions for several months each year. 
INORA views vermicompost as a low-tech soil improvement practice
that is well adapted to small farms.

They assist farmers in erecting wormeries, which are shade houses
constructed of bamboo poles and thatch roofs 80 feet long and about
30 feet wide.

For bedding they use a mixture of 50% cow dung and 50% biomass such
as grass and fodder.  The biomass comes from intentionally planted
crops in under-utilized spaces such as fence rows and bunds.  The
INORA advisors help farmers look at the non-cropland areas
around the farm as productive spaces to acquire biomass as a source
for worm bedding and bioconversion.  The farmers fill a wicker basket
with 10 kg of the 50:50 mixture, and plop down two patties side by
side.  This continues until a long row of double patties is formed.
The worms are added atop the plops, and then covered with loose
organic matter or previously made worm compost.  Thus a worm
bed is established. 

The worms they use are African red worms and common red worms.
After equilibrium is established, 95% of the population settles out
as African red worms and 5% red worms; yet they keep using the red
worms because they occupy an important ecological niche in the worm
bed.  It takes about 3 months for the worms to work over the first
bed, but only half this time in following cycles due to worm
population buildup.

A pamphlet from INORA says they use the following worms:

Eisenia foetida
Perionyx excavatus
Eudrilus euginae

[Which species is African Red Worms....  Perionyx or Eudrilus?]

One other notable practice at INORA is the inoculation of the
worm beds with 3-4 soil microbial inoculants 10-12 days
prior to harvest. These microbials include azotobacter and
azospirillum (N-fixing microorganisms) along with phosphorus
solublizing bacteria, to create a vermicompost biofertilizer.  This
end product, the vermicompost biofertilizer, is applied at a rate of
2 tons per acre. 

Two observations:
*The integration of worm compost with microbial inoculants is an
 advanced organic farming practice in India.
*It is a remarkable achievement to make and apply 2 tons/acre
 precious biofertilizer from organic wastes....   all prepared and
 spread by hand with the aid of a bullock cart.

Worm Digest ran a special issue on vermicomposting in Indi

solutions for some problems faced by the famers by buying the fertizers is increase the use of vermicompost only

Vermiculture in India

In the past ten years an organization in India has prompted over 2,000 farmers and institutions to switch from conventional chemicals to the organic fertilizer, vermicompost. Noted for its ability to increase organic matter and trace minerals in soil, vermiculture has been the primary focus at Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks in India, an organization which has initiated both commercial and educational ventures to promote vermiculture.

In 1985, Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks was formed and established a small plant to manufacture vermicompost from agricultural waste. Those involved believed that a successful commercial venture based on regenerative principles might convince others to adapt sustainable practices.

The organization currently produces 5,000 tons of vermicompost annually. Its real achievement, however, has been in raising awareness among farmers, researchers and policy makers in India about regenerative food production methods. The group is directly responsible for 2,000 farmers and horticulturists adopting vermicomposting. These converts have begun secondary dissemination of the principles they were taught.

In 1991-92, Maharashtra Bioteks and the India Department of Science and Technology promoted the adoption of vermicompost technology in 13 states in India. The group has also established a vermicompost unit with Chitrakoot Gramodaya University, Madhya Pradesh which produces five tons of vermicompost per month.

Education and Demonstration

Nearly 1,000 farmers have reduces their use of chemical fertilizers by 90% by using vermicompost as a soil amendment for growing grapes, pomegranates and bananas. Similar work is underway on mangoes, cashews, coconuts, oranges, limes, strawberries and various vegetable crops.

The organization has devised methods to convert biodegradable industrial waste like pulp waste from paper mills and filter cake and liquid effluent from sugar factories into vermicompost. These wastes are commonly regarded as pollutants, but three facilities are already producing thirty tons of vermicompost each month from this waste.

The organization has also created a program which trains housewives and home gardeners to produce their own vermicompost from household and garden waste. The aim of this work is to increase awareness about regenerative practices. To this end, vermicompost kits have been developed and distributed and in one year 100 housewives were trained to use the kits.

Through its programs with farmers, institutions and at the government level, Maharashtra Agricultural Bioteks is convincing people that vermicompost presents a healthy alternative to chemical fertilizers.

Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide……

Debt woes drive thousands of Indian farmers to suicide……

KOCHI, India (AP) — On the last night of his life, the farmer walked into his dusty fields, choked down pesticide and waited to die.

He owed more than $1,000 to banks and moneylenders and he had told his wife that if the cotton harvest was bad this year, he would kill himself.

Pandurang Chindu Surpam left the near-barren fields he worked with his sons to share a last meal with his family. Hours later, he died. He was 45.

Crushed by debts most Westerners would deem inconsequential, farmers like Surpam killed themselves at a rate of 48 a day between 2002 and 2006 — more than 17,500 a year, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics. At least 160,000 farmers have committed suicide since 1997, said K. Nagaraj of the Madras Institute of Development Studies.

The epidemic dates to the 1990s, and is generally attributed to a toxic blend of slashed subsidies, tougher global competition, drought, predatory moneylenders and expensive genetically modified seeds.

“It’s one of the largest public health disasters to hit India since independence,” said professor Charles Nuckols of Brigham Young University, an anthropologist who has studied Indian village life for decades.

In northern India, authorities have gone so far as to ban a type of cheap hair dye because it was being drunk to induce death by kidney failure.

But it is India’s cotton belt, a land of searing temperatures and backbreaking work, that has been hit hardest by the suicides.

In rural Maharashtra state, farmers say things have never been harder. Owing more than they earn, these steadiest of workers have become gamblers of the highest stakes, betting their land — and their lives — on one more good crop.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has visited some of the widows, and the 2008 budget offers some debt relief.

But the farmers say their plight is largely being ignored as the country rushes to embrace the global marketplace. Few find it reassuring that India’s agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, doubles as the nation’s top cricket official.

A decade ago, the government began cutting farm subsidies as it liberalized the managed socialist economy. The farmers’ costs rose as the tariffs that had protected their products were lowered. It was a combination, analysts say, that made small farms even harder to sustain.

“Suicide is one of the symptoms of the larger agrarian crisis,” said Srijit Mishra of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research.

Meanwhile, banking reforms forced farmers to be more dependent on private moneylenders. These generally allow the farmers only 11 months to pay back their loans at interest rates of more than 100 percent a year, or else they seize the land at a drastically reduced rate.

“It’s not a nice business,” said one village moneylender, who agreed to be interviewed if he was not identified because he was unlicensed. “But you earn a lot of money.”

A soft-spoken man with a pencil-thin mustache, he runs a small grocery store and has made hundreds of loans to farmers. He has also seized some 125 acres in his decades-long career, which he took over from his father. He said the number of farmers unable to repay their loans has increased by roughly 30 percent in the last 10 years.

“When we loan them money, we are quite sure whether or not they can pay,” he said, his long fingers crossed in his lap. “We know it’s going to be our land eventually.”

Farmers and analysts say another blow was the introduction of genetically modified cotton seeds, notably St. Louis-based Monsanto Co.’s “Bt” seeds which are resistant to boll worms. The seeds can be more productive and have become standard in much of Maharashtra but can be three times more expensive to maintain than traditional seeds.

For the widows, left to tend the crops and raise the children, the suicides are personal calamities with roots not in macroeconomics, but in homegrown problems — impossible debts, the loss of ancestral land, rapacious money lenders.

Surpam’s widow, a stoic mother of three with a face toughened by the sun, blames her husband’s suicide on the loans he had taken over the past two years, his first taste of debt. He borrowed 25,000 rupees ($625) from a bank and 20,000 rupees ($500) from private moneylenders to invest in his fields and to pay for his daughter’s wedding, she said.

“He used to say we owe money and if anyone comes looking for us, it would be a dishonor,” said his wife, Sumitra, who learned only after his death on April 1 how much he owed.

Surpam’s three acres produced just $150 worth of cotton this year — not nearly enough to keep the moneylender at bay.

The suicide, Sumitra said, “was obviously because of the loan.”

For Surpam and most other small farmers here, borrowing money is as natural as tilling the soil.

When a group of farmers in Kochi were asked recently by The Associated Press which of them was in debt, every hand in the room shot up.

The 2008 budget made special provisions for farmers, forgiving debts to state banks. The move was widely seen as an attempt to stave off rural discontent, which played a large role in toppling the previous government.

But the waivers apply only to farmers who own less than five acres, disqualifying millions. And they don’t apply to loans by private moneylenders.

The Waghmere family of Bothbodan village owns slightly more than five acres, so their debt to the bank of more than 60,000 rupees ($1,500) won’t be wiped clean.

Before Shanker Waghmere, 49, killed himself in 2005, “he kept talking about debts going up each passing day,” said his 35-year-old widow, Shantabair.

With night falling on her crops and her three children fluttering behind her, the widow said she hopes she’ll earn enough from this year’s harvest to pay off her husband’s debt, pay for her daughter’s wedding, pay for her son’s school.

She plans to buy a batch of seeds she heard grows better cotton.

She said she’ll pay for them with a loan from a moneylender.

THINGS THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BY PEOPLE FOR BETTER INDIA

THINGS THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BY PEOPLE FOR BETTER INDIA

I TOUGHT THAT THIS SECTOR HELP INDIA TO DEVELOP

1.AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

IMPACT OF AGRICULTURE ON INDIAN ECCONOMY IS CONSIDERABLE ,MAY BE 17% ON GROWTH OF INDIAN ECONOMY (*according to article i read )

THERE FEW THING THAT SHOULD ALSO BE CONSIDERED IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

MOST OF THE INDIAN POPULATION ARE EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood especially for a countryy like "INDIA". Reforms are important because they protect the rights of the farmers

reforms that must considered according to my thoughts

measures like credit measures, integration of land and training of the farmers. the measures also
focus on securing the rights of the farmers, the rights of the peasants working on leased land and providing loans from private sectors. the government must also offer support services to the farmers which complement the other measures. They also run campaigns to increase the camaraderie level between the farmers.

Goverments MUST TAKE STRICT REGULATIONS IN THE FILEDS that sourrouneded in an around AGRICULUTRE SECTOR

Adverse Efeects Of Impoper planning or negligance for AGRICULTURAL SECTOR leads

!.Scarcity of Food Grains
2.Hike in prices of Food Grains
3.IN one stage we are too be the top productions of food grains where we export our Agriclutural products too other countries but there may be have chance to import the same Agricultural products for feeding for ourselves also .
4.improper Measures against the farmers lead to Migration of FARMER into ohter FEILDS
which would be an adverse EFFECT .
5.MAy be we feed our children our grand children with chemical protiens instead of the natural food grains.
6.INCREASE IN SUCIDES OF THESE FARMERS WHO ARE THE BACK BONE OF INDIAN AGRICULTURE PORUDUCTIVITY