Cotton bolls and suicide

By Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork

Farmer Suicides India from Fleischaker-Greene Scholars on Vimeo.

ADILABAD, INDIA –Bojanna came home one day after farming his 10-acre field of cotton, had chai on the front step of his two-room house, and drank a bottle of the pesticide that failed to save his crops, throwing the bottle against the house. “ ‘It’s burning inside, burning inside,’” his wife, Rajamma Mani Elishetti, recalled him saying. Neighbors tried to revive him, feeding him curd, salt and water. He was dead in five minutes.

A month later, Rajamma sat with women from her village, her two sons standing behind her. Her tears watered the parched red dirt floors of her house. “I have no idea what we will do,” she sobbed in Telegu. Her husband’s death had left her and her two sons with a crippling debt.

Rajamma Mani Elishetti and her two sons, ages 17 and 8, pictured in their home in the Adilabad District of India. The family took out a loan to build the house and were unable to repay money lenders. Their cotton fields failed to yield and Rajamma's husband, their father, committed suicide. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

In the past decade 180,000 have committed suicide in India, many in the cotton industry according to the Ministry of Home Affair’s National Crime Records Bureau. Since hybrid seed technology, industrial machinery and chemical fertilizers and pesticides were introduced in India, farmers have been taking loans from private lenders and putting faith in their fields. With nothing to fall back on, they are one failed season away from incurring perilous debt. In so many cases, the farmers who are feeding and clothing the world, are barely able to feed and clothe themselves.Woven into cheap t-shirts, sold around the world, is the plight of these struggling farmers.

COTTON
Bodike Devbai said her son, a cotton farmer, was supposed to take care of her in old age. Now, with whitening hair, she lives with a family in her village, no kin still alive. Her son hung himself from a tree. “He selfishly spoiled everything,” she wailed.

Bodike Devbai laments over her son, a cotton farmer in Adilabad who hanged himself from a tree. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

The narrow dirt roads of the Adilabad district are strewn with cotton, trodden by ox-pulled cotton carts, rickshaws and trucks, beds brimming with the plush white bolls. The district is the fifth largest in the state of Andhra Pradesh and 73 percent of its population is dependent on agriculture.

Cotton is planted in twenty-seven percent of the district, making up sixteen percent of cotton planted in the entire state.  However, the yields are not in accordance with the amount of cotton planted.  The district produces only about 5 percent of the state’s total cotton, meaning more than half of the cotton fields fail, according to statistics from The government of Andhra Pradesh Adilabad District site.

The rate of suicides is still increasing, according to Dr. G.V. Ramanjaneyulu at the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in Hyderabad, an organization that works with small and marginal farmers in India to provide sustainable technologies. In three days there were 17 suicides in the Hyderabad District, which includes the Adilabad district. Sixty-eight deaths were reported from July to November, he said.

“Every half an hour there is a death happening.” -Ramanjaneyulu

A cotton ginnery in the Adilabad District. Workers gather the cotton bolls and put them though the mechanic gin.

Mountains of cotton amass in 20-foot mounds outside of a cotton processing plant in the Adilabad District. Men, women and children collect cotton from the loud-clanking gins, emitting cloudy debris into the air. Cotton remnants collect between their toes, on men’s beards, on dresses and slacks.

Muhammed Wahuddeen is a “fitter” at the factory, fixing the cotton ginning machinery. Cotton seed is made into fodder for animals, and oil, while the bolls are exported to be turned into fabric. The cotton comes from local villages, The cotton comes from local villages, 165,000- 175,000 pounds each year. “It is a profitable business,” he said. While factory jobs are somewhat secure, farming is entirely subjective to the success of crops. Since high-yield seed technology was introduced in the 60s, more cotton crops have been failing in southern India.

An auto rickshaw in the Adilabad District carrying from a field to a factory. Traffic in the district consists, almost entirely, of cotton carrying vehicles. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

GREEN REVOLUTION

In the early 60s, former Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri called upon India’s population of 480 million to skip a meal a week in order to alleviate food crisis in the nation. In the late sixties, India was transformed by the Green Revolution, focusing on the role of technology in agricultural as a means to support their growing population They imported specialized seed hybrids and high-yield varieties for various crops in the country.

Agricultural growth, measured as the annual rate of growth in net domestic product, increased from 1.9 percent annually before the Green Revolution period to 2.3 percent during the first phase of the Green Revolution and accelerated further to 3.1 percent during the second phase of the Green Revolution according to statistics from the government of India.

Women and children pick cotton bolls in the fields of a successful cotton field in Adilabad. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

The Green Revolution enabled India to become self-sufficient in agriculture, ensuring a basic level of food security through adoption of new technologies such as plant breeding, irrigation development and financing of agrochemicals were encouraged.

“The Green Revolution has been one of the greatest technology models of anywhere in the world,” said N.H. Rao, joint director of the National Academy for Agricultural Research Management in Hyderabad, India.  “Before it, we were importing shiploads of food from the U.S,” Rao said. “What is fascinating about the Green Revolution is the whole transformation took place in a period of three to five years.”

Scientist Norman Borlaug, known as the “father of the Green Revolution,” developed the high-yield, disease-resistant seed varieties, heavily distributed in Mexico, Pakistan, and India. C. Subramaniam, the Indian Minister of Agriculture, sanctioned the import of 23,000 tons of these seeds for distribution in the 1965-66 crop season.

“The Green revolution changed our destiny. Everything at that time revolved around that seed,” said P.K. Joshi, Director, National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research.
While some people perceive the Green Revolution as a positive progression, others see it as the initial exploitation of farmers and the land. The Indian government initiated the Green Revolution as a package, including new high-yield seeds, irrigation facilities, subsidized provision of water, power and fertilizers and support prices in the final market, said Ramanjaneyulu, a critic of the movement.

“During the Green Revolution, the government chose the best soils and provided the best public support.  But the government has withdrawn that support,” Ramanjaneyulu said. “Today, everything has to be dependent on the farmer’s pockets.”

BT COTTON
Most farmer suicides have happened in the cotton industry, according to Rao.  “Cotton is a risky crop, but it is a profitable crop,” he said. “If there is a drought or pest attack, the farmer is likely to suffer.”

In 1989, American scientists developed the Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton seed, a genetically modified seed designed to grow cotton that resists the bollworm. Monsanto, one of the world’s largest producers of genetically modified or transgenic seeds, holds the patent on Bt cotton seeds.

After being accused of contributing to the farmer suicide trend Monsanto released a public statement in 2008 stating: “Farmers are Monsanto’s customers, and we are successful only if our customers are successful. Farmers in India have found success with Bollgard. We have many repeat customers and many new ones there every year.”

Bojanna’s ten acres of cotton were Bt. His land was void of irrigation. The soil was veined with cracks, evidence of drought. “The average land holding in India is very small.” Ramanjaneyulu said. What can be done on your small farms with your own resources, is not encouraged. We are bringing in technology that does not fit our economy.”

Bojanna's failed 10-acre field of cotton in Adilabad. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

Stalks of cotton were stunted, dark and wilting. India plants more cotton than any other country, claiming 30 percent of the world’s cotton acreage in 2008-09, compared with 20.5% for China and 9.9% for the United States,  according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee. Yet India’s cotton yield falls short, producing 17.8 million bales to China’s 33.5, grown from, according to United States Department of Agriculture. India is planting more cotton than the rest of the world but still yielding less than China.

Nearly all of India’s rainfall comes from the yearly monsoon, subjecting crops to weather variations. Bt cotton grows better in irrigated areas than it does in rain-fed areas, but only a small percent of India’s cotton crops are irrigated according to a report done by The International Food Policy Research Institute. The dry year of 2008-2009 contributed to the first decline in yield since GMO seeds were introduced.

“Agriculture is still dependent on monsoon weather. Weather is good – good harvest. So one crop failure means two or three seasons are gone for the family if they borrowed money from the bank,” said Joshi.

Ironically, the recent surge of farmer suicides comes at a time when India is the second largest producer of cotton in the world. The spike in yield was seen after the commercial planting of genetically modified seed was first permitted in 2002. Since then, use of GM seeds has expanded to cover nearly 80 percent of India’s cotton acreage, according to a 2009 report by Indian Directorate of Cotton Development.

But Bt is not an infallible technology as some farmers expect it to be. Many farmers are not educated on which seeds to buy and how to tend to them, Rao said.

Extension centers run by the local government have not been able to provide farmers with adequate information and training regarding growing new varieties of cotton. In turn, many farmers rely on information given by private seed companies. “Many private companies took advantage of farmers,” said Joshi.

LOANS AND DEBT
Bojanna, Rajamma Elishetti and their two sons, ages 8 and 17, incurred 400,000 rupees, about 8,000 U.S. dollars, of debt, an incomprehensible amount of money for a poor Indian family.
They moved to Adilabad 16 years ago and began farming on 10 acres of leased land. Bojanna farmed for six years before deciding to seek work in the middle eastern nation of Dubai as a laborer. After four years he returned to Adilabad to try his hand at farming again, investing in 15 bags of Bt cotton seed at 750 rupees each. Besides that, he spent about 8,000 rupees per acre on fertilizer, pesticide and labor charges. At the market, Bojanna made only 2,800 rupees per acre (62 U.S. dollars), acquiring 5,200 rupees (115 U.S. dollars) of debt per acre. In order to afford these costs, he took loans from a private lender in town at %3 interest rate per month, %36 annually.

His crops did poorly each year and the family sunk deeper in debt.  “We were more in debt every year,” said Rajamma. “This year he was hopeful to get 12 quintals, 2,645 pounds, of cotton per acre, but he only ended up getting one,” she said.

Many farmers are willing to take the financial risk of investing in cotton, because the payoff of a perfect crop would be extremely lucrative. But cotton crops fail so often, especially in Adilabad. “The return from cotton is much higher than any other crop,” said Rao. “Farmers are willing to take that risk. And many have taken that risk. Some were not so lucky.”

On top of the debt acquired from farming costs, Bojanna and Rajamma took out 250,000 rupees (about 5,500 U.S. dollars) to build a house, expecting to get reimbursed through a government program that pays back farmers up to 100,000 rupees (about 2,200 U.S. dollars) to build a house. The grant was never sanctioned and their debt increased even more. “Even now that he is dead, I still have the debt,” Rajamma said. “I have no idea what we will do. There should be support from the government to get out of such situations,” she said.

Rajamma works in a beedi cigarette factory and helps her sons harvest the final four acres of emaciated cotton.

Access to government credit has become more difficult in India. The rural credit system is facing financial trouble, leading state banks to tighten lending requirements. Many farmers, like Bojanna, then resort to informal sources of credit- private money lenders, friends and relatives.

“Farming is not viable on its own. To keep industry happy you are keeping prices low. When you are keeping the prices artificially lower, you need to support people who are depending on farming. Today, that is not happening in India,” Ramanjaneyulu said. “Once you get into it, you have no option to get out.”

Rajamma Mani Elishetti and her two sons standing outside of their house. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)