Corporatisation of Agriculture has made matters worse: Magsaysay Award winner P Sainath

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sep 8, 2013: P Sainath, Magsaysay Award Winner and Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu has attributed the high suicide rate among farmers to the growing inequality and economic policies.

Delivering a lecture on ‘Corporate Hijack of Indian Agriculture’  as part of the first B V Kakkillaya Inspired Orations – 2013 here on  September 7, Saturday, Sainath said   most of the famers committing suicides are cash crop farmers.  Pointing out that Karnataka ranks second as far as farmer suicides were concerned, he  said the greater cultivation of cash crops had led to greater  control of the sector by corporates. Continuing, he said the suicide was 47 percent higher among farmers than non-farmers and added  the highest number of suicides was by cotton farmers.

He also made a very interesting observation when  he said  the suicide rates were calculated by excluding thousands of women farmer sand Dalit farmers. This is because the society does not consider women as farmers, he added.

Sainath even  stated that  it was the West which wanted India to go in for more cash crops as in such an event  India would be dependent on them. Corporatization of agriculture is making matters worse, he added.

On this occasion the third edition of ‘Bara Andre Ellarigu Ishta’, Kannada translation of Sainath’s book ‘Everybody Loves a Good Drought’ was released by K Phaniraj.