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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How Demonetisation Has Accelerated Tamil Nadu's Deepening Agrarian Crisis -R Ramasubramanian

How Demonetisation Has Accelerated Tamil Nadu's Deepening Agrarian Crisis -R Ramasubramanian

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published Published on Jan 16, 2017   modified Modified on Jan 16, 2017
-TheWire.in

Out of the 144 recorded farmer suicides, over 40 were from outside the Cauvery delta region. Observers and farmers directly attribute demonetisation as one major factor behind the suicides.

Tamil Nadu is facing one of its worst agrarian crises since independence. All of the state’s 32 districts have been officially declared as ‘drought-affected’.  In a statement issued on January 10, chief minister O. Panneerselvam announced that the move was necessitated following the failure of the north-east monsoon across the state. For the first time the chief minister has accepted that farmers are committing suicide as a result of agrarian distress, However, he has only put the number of deaths at just 17. Various farmers associations across the state dispute this number and say there have been at least 144 deaths in the past two months. They say that out of 144, 50 were deliberate suicides and the rest perished due to heart attacks.

The seriousness of the situation can be gauged from the notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission to the state government in the first week of January on the basis of local print media reports, which put the number of farmer suicides at 106.  

Tamil Nadu has slowly been slipping into an agrarian crisis over last five years. In 2016,  a combination of various factors aggravated the situation. The worst affected is the Cauvery delta, comprising the districts Thanjavur, Thiruvaroor, Nagapattinam and a part of Cuddalore.  Though rest of Tamil Nadu is also affected the stress is particularly acute in the Cauvery delta. “Only the combination of ground water, Cauvery water and monsoon can ensure good harvest. Unfortunately all three betrayed Tamil Nadu in general and Cauvery delta in particular,” says S. Ranganathan, Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association.

Quoting an Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) report published in the Times of India, another farmers’ association secretary says, “The area under rice cultivation in Tamil Nadu fell by nearly 40% so far in the 2016-2017 period. Last year 29.55 lakh acres was the coverage area under rice cultivation. But this year it has gone down to 17.95 lakh acres. Apart from paddy, pulses acreage has also declined to 8.7 lakh acres as against 9.85 lakh acres last year. Coarse cereals coverage has gone down to 8.88 lakh acres from 10.58 lakh acres. Oil seeds coverage slipped to 95,000 acres from 2.23 lakh acres since last year. You can gauge the quantum of inflation staring at the face of Tamil Nadu people in the coming months with the imminent spiralling of prices of vegetables, fruits and all other food items”.  

Agricultural experts regret that the government wasted precious time and delayed in assessing the drought’s damage. “The government was waiting for at least three cyclones on the hope that it will bring in much more water to the state and wipe out the drought. So the authorities delayed dispatching teams to the districts. But all three cyclones changed their path and then only the government started sending teams to districts. The meteorological department at the start of December itself warned that there is a genuine threat of 62% rainfall deficit. So the government was definitely in slumber at the golden hours” says a scientist, who declined to be identified, working at Coimbatore Agricultural University.

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TheWire.in, 15 January, 2017, https://thewire.in/100024/demonetisation-tamil-nadus-deepening-agrarian-crisis/


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