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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How loan sharks pull poor farmers into a debt trap -Naheed Ataulla & Anand J

How loan sharks pull poor farmers into a debt trap -Naheed Ataulla & Anand J

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published Published on Jul 27, 2015   modified Modified on Jul 27, 2015
-The Times of India

As crops fail, banks don't deliver and the government falters, Mandya's farmers find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous moneylenders

Chenne Gowda has a Rs. 4 lakh albatross around his neck. The 55-year-old sugarcane farmer from Chikka maralli village in Pan davapura taluk, Mandya district, took the loan from private moneylenders but has no idea how he'll repay. His crop, on two acres, is wilting in the field because it has no buyers. Sugar factories have been sitting on unsold stock for the past 12 months and have no incentive to commence crushing this year.
 
Gowda took the loan for farming, for his daughter's marriage and to repair his small thatched leaking house.It was taken at 5% interest per month, which is 80% annual interest on a compounded basis. And the "meter baddi'' (interest levied on a weekly or monthly basis on defaulters) is already operational. Gowda's wife Susheelamma and son Chennappa are daily wage workers.Gowda has health issues and can't undertake agricultural activities. "With these liabilities and banks refusing to refinance without dues being cleared, who'll help me?'' he asks in desperation.

There are many like him in Mandya district, where sugarcane, paddy and mulberry are the prime agricultural activities. When in crisis, they either go to a traditional private moneylender to who they are not yet beholden, or to other locals with money - they could be government employees, teachers, neighbours. But with either source, the problem invariably worsens, unless the farmer gets a really good price for the next crop.Since the first farmer suicide reported on June 21, Mandya has seen close to 40 cases so far.

Institutional finance fails

"The core reason for the agrarian distress is the failure of institutional finance. The space abandoned by the state government and the banking sector has been filled by unofficial moneylenders," sources say . The problem gets compounded because Mandya has one of the lowest average landholding per farmer in the country , making farmers here particularly susceptible.

Scheduled commercial banks are obliged to give subsidized loans - at 7% per annum for agriculture, and allocate up to 18% of their lending to this segment. RBI also stipulates that no collateral should be asked for loans up to Rs 1 lakh. But the way the whole system works is steeped in corruption and mismanagement, it forces farmers to fall into the trap of private moneylenders.

In 2014-15, the total crop loan disbursed in Mandya district was Rs 1,200 crore-Rs 600 crore from commercial banks, Rs 350 crore from cooperative banks and Rs 250 crore from the cooperative sector. It is alleged that of the 600 crore from commercial banks, as much as Rs 500 crore has been given against jewellery mortgage, despite the "no collateral" stipulation. Banks thus pass off gold loans as agri loans. To fulfill their agri loan quota, banks also push credit to people claiming to be farmers, but in effect are moneylenders.

If a farmer defaults even once, the institutional credit to them stops and they are forced to approach microfinance institutions (MFIs) and moneylenders. "The MFIs on paper charge 16-24% interest per annum, but effective rate goes up to 65%," says C Ku mari, a CITU worker who is also part of Janavadi Mahila Sangha that is counselling farmers.

The biggest MFI in Mandya is said to be the Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP).

"It is a potent mix. In borrowers' minds, there is this mortal fear of defaulting on a loan taken from a religious or ganization," sources say . The SKDRDP operates mostly through self-help groups (SHGs) that draw members from the Stree Shakti programme de signed to empower rural women and make them self-reliant.

Multiple loans, multiple woes

There are 20,000 SHGs run by grameen banks, 13,000 by SKDRDP , and 6,000 by Stree Shakti groups, says Mandya zilla panchayat CEO Rohini Sindhuri. Each SHG has 10-20 members and a person is often a member of several such SHGs that makes himher eligible for multi ple borrowings. This worsens the debt situation.

Some say that unlike in Maharash tra, the cooperative banks too have been politicized and mismanaged. " As long as this situation exists, the farmer will not reveal the moneylender's iden tity,'' says Sindhuri, referring to the government's crackdown on private financiers. While this has made mon eylenders fearful, the police have found it difficult to frame proper charges against anybody . "We seized 700 diaries in Pandavapura, 1,500 blank cheques, promissory notes, stamp papers, sale deeds, RC books, and booked 50 cases in the last three weeks. But identification of the moneylender is an issue as the person would be a relative of the victim, who had helped him in distress,'' says Mandya SP Bhushan Gulabrao Borase.

For sugarcane growers here, the crisis began with the five sugar factories in the dis trict delaying the crushing of the 18,000 hectares of sugar cane ready for har vesting. Of 2.5 lakh hectares of cultiva ble land, sugarcane was sown on 40,000 hectares in 2014.

The factories say the delay is due to unsold stock, the slide in retail price of sugar from Rs 29 to Rs 19 per kg and annual repairs of boilers.

Falling prices a worry

It's not just sugarcane farmers bearing the heat of moneylenders.

K C Revanna, a sericulture farmer, had taken a loan of Rs 4.5 lakh in 2010 from a primary cooperative bank. A year later, he managed to clear Rs 1 lakh and an other Rs 60,000 in three instalments by 2012. The rest remains unpaid.

Reason: the price of mulberry, which was Rs 350 per kg, dropped to Rs 137 per kg in June at the Ramanagaram cocoon market. The government had promised to pay a support price of Rs 30 per kg, if the rates dropped, but Rs 24,000 is yet to reach Revanna. He owns two cows yielding 10 litres per day . The government had again declared a sup port price of Rs 4 per litre, but the promised amount didn't come: there is a milk glut in the district.

Forces completely beyond the con trol of small farmers are combining to create vicious debt cycles.

The Times of India, 27 July, 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/How-loan-sharks-pull-poor-farmers-into-a-debt-trap/articleshow/48230786.cms


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