Ravinder Singh Malik

Chandigarh

Crop growers in Haryana are reeling under debt which is matter of serious concerns as they are the backbone of the economy. The increasing demand of farmers to waive off debt in state is the talk of the town these days and a huge proportions of small farmers is forced to live under poverty line. The economic conditions of farmers in Haryana is not better than farmers of adjoining Punjab. The statistic revealed that nearly 16.5 lakh people in state belong to agrarian community and about 15 lakh of them are under the debt constituting a total amount of about 7700 crore.

It indicates that farmers find themselves unable to cope with the increasing debt and pressure by the bank for the repayment. it is pertinent to mention that 88 percent of the small scale farmers are under debts. In view of farmers’ worse conditions in the state and on the line of MP and Rajasthan, the demand of debt waiving continues to strike scenario. Prices of major farm inputs diesel and fertilizers is much higher than the prices of agricultural products leading to indebtednessAmong those small crop growers under debt, about 85-90 per cent don’t have land more than five acres and a huge proportion of those could not pay debt even after selling their land. The agrarian society is under hammer continuously and have been failed to repay its loan. The present scenario requires a full proof strategy to get farmers rid of their problems.

The largest body of small farmers in state is fighting to save their livelihoods. Meanwhile , farmers continue to protest as crop failure has become a common phenomenon resulting in the failure to repayment of loans. Along with this , the statistics also reveal that debt waiving does not seems changing the situations of farmers. ” The BJP government is responsible for the worse conditions of farmers so it is the need of hour to waive all the debts of farmers in state” said spokesman of BKU, Rakesh Bains. The opposite faction including Congress and BJP have come in favour of debt waiver for farmers in state while in reaction to it, the ruling BJP claims that waiving off the the debt is not the end of problems for farmers and there should be a provision of pension for the far+++mer community.

The report of National Sample Survey Organisation revealed that about 58 per cent of total debt has been taken from government ns such cooperative banks while rest 42 per cent is from commission agents and market. it also came to light that expenditure on crops is also much higher than the Minimum Support Prize ( MSP) which is responsible for the poor condition of farmers in state to some extent. The farmers spend Rs 2,074 to produce one quintel wheat while MSP is Rs1840 while in case of Gram, the expenditure per quintel is Rs 6333 as compared to 4620 . The scenario pertaining to the Kharif crops also remains changed.

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