OVERVIEW:
Increasing number of farmer’s suicide and rising farming issues in India are really alarming and need immediate attention. In keeping with main objective of Save Indian Farmers (SIF) to promote awareness regarding the issue of farmer suicide and support farmer families by funding projects that will help farmers and families in the long run a group of 4 SIF-Manthan volunteers visited Varuna Village in Karnataka to comprehend some ground level details and to monitor the socio- economic condition of the female farmers of the village. During their visit on June 11th, 2016 around 10 farmers shared their experience regarding farming and the difficulties faced during the entire farming process.
Varuna village is situated near Mysore with easy access to a major highway. One key point to mention here is that all the farmers that interacted were female farmers who had borrowed from Rang De and self-help groups. The SIF volunteer group was accompanied by one member from Rang De and one member from SVYM. Below is a summarized report on some key observations, alarming concerns recognized during the conversation and proposal for improvement.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS:
The village and the farmers have sufficient access to water and open market as the village is situated near a major highway. The weather conditions are not extreme and the farmers generally do not face natural calamities like other badly affected villages in India.
The average size of the land owned by these farmers is around 0.75-1.5 acre. The farmers of Varuna village are mostly into paddy farming, vegetable farming and milk production. Out of 10 farmers 2 were vegetable growers (tomato and brinjal) mainly because they had access to bore wells which satisfies the continuous need of water needed for vegetable cultivation. Others generally grow paddy.
All of the farmers present had borrowedfrom Rang De at a subsidized rate of 10% per annum. This is different from the earlier practice of getting loans from the market at a rate ranging from 3-5% per month, which amounts to a massive annual interest rate of 36-60%. One can see the monetary ease they are at now compared to the past.
In addition to Rang De the farmers are getting help from the self-help group. This self-help group is formed with the help of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM). All the members of this self-help group are farmers of Varuna village and the group members collectively give financial help to the farmer in distress. This self-help group always has surplus amount for any emergency financial help for farming. The group charges 2% per month interest rate for lending money.
Most of the farmers also had alternate source of income and as a result did not face much difficulties in repaying the loan.
