‘Pesticides failed to kill pests but ended up killing my father’
ODISHA SUICIDES After brown planthoppers ravaged their crops, many farmers in the state resorted to suicide
Landless farmer Brunda Sahoo’s hopes soared early October when he saw lush green standing paddy crop on 15 acres he had cultivated as a sharecropper. Upbeat, he told his family they could repair their broken house and also marry off his daughter Preeti, 18, when money came in after harvesting.
Then a swarm of dreaded brown planthoppers descended. The pests, known to infest paddy fields, started a feeding frenzy. The green leaves turned orangeyellow. Sahoo, 51, tried fighting them with pesticide; it did not work. Soon, the leaves turned brown and bone dry, signalling the onset of a condition known as hopperburn that kills the plant.
Sahoo knew his crop had no chance and decided he didn’t either. On October 31, he set fire to his destroyed crop at Kalapani village in Bargarh district, about 350km northwest of Odisha capital Bhubaneswar.
According to his family, it was a debt-ridden farmer’s desperate bid to catch the government’s attention. The next day, Sahoo drank poison and died while being taken to hospital.
Farmers Alaya Jena of Sanakhemundi block in Ganjam district and P Nabin Kumar of Nuakhairpali village in Bargarh have committed suicide since, unable to fend off the brown planthoppers that Odisha farmers call ‘Matia Gundi’ (brown insect that turns crops into dust)
Jena died on Sunday, becoming the seventh Odisha farmer to end his life this year due to the pests. On October 25, chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced a drought relief package for farmers in 15 of the state’s 30 districts. There was no mention of relief for crop damage due to pests.
On Sunday, the state government acknowledged pests had affected crops in nearly 1.78 lakh hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres) of agricultural land across nine districts. State development commissioner and additional chief secretary, R Balakrishnan, reviewed the pest damage to crops with district collectors. “Pest attack is a natural calamity and affected farmers will be compensated as per Odisha relief code,” he told HT.
Sahoo’s elder brother, Nagat, who also tills land as a sharecropper (tenant farmer who gives a part of the crop as rent) blames the pesticides. “We faced the pest onslaught successfully in 2015 but the pesticides this year have turned out to be ineffective.”
Patnaik and his ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have come under criticism. The state agriculture
BARGARH:
department was late in sending subsidised pesticides to each of the 314 blocks this year as discussions dragged on over a notification indicating price list of several products. The notification was issued on November 1, the day Sahoo died.
“The notification is usually ready by August. Even if delayed, we get it by September. But it came in very late,” said an agriculture department official who did not want to be named.
Kalapani sarpanch and farmer Bhira Reddy said the pesticide they used may have been of inferior quality. “Local dealers are stocking sub-standard pesticides manufactured by smaller companies in Chhattisgarh,” he alleged.
Sahoo’s daughter insists she knows what drove her father to suicide. “The pesticides failed to kill the insects but killed my father,” said Preeti.
Bijay Sahoo, a pesticide dealer of Bargarh, said he had not compromised on the quality of products. “I think the humid climate played a role.”
Mayabini Jena, principal scientist and head of crop protection division of National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, said early action against brown planthoppers is the best bet to contain the disease and protect crops. “Once humidity and temperature increase, female moths lay more than 100-150 eggs each day. If there is a delay in spraying pesticides, it becomes difficult.”
For farmers, the attack has been a body blow. Sharecroppers often depend on local moneylenders who demand exorbitant rates of interest. Sahoo’s son, Rajesh, 21, admitted this was a reason why his father was stressed. “Also, the pesticides and fertilisers he used in field were taken on credit from local traders who would have taken a share of the harvest in return,” said Rajesh.
Opposition parties are targeting the government. “It is agriculture minister Damodar Rout who is responsible for farmers' deaths. Why were pesticides not supplied on time?” asked Anant Padhi, president of Bargarh district Congress committee.