“With the end to the sugarcane crushing season fast approaching, the suicide rates have increased. If not harvested in time sugarcane loses its value. When a small farmer does not get his expected return on the investment, he cannot afford anything the next year. This is leading to the crisis,” says KRRS secretary Veerabhushan Nandgave.

The suicides have come even after the H D Kumaraswamy-led Government intervened in April and announced an additional cover of Rs 100 to farmers on every ton of sugarcane. The state Government has also promised the factories concessions on the lines provided in Maharashtra, including a waiver of purchase tax, in an effort to get them to process the farmer’s produce.

Karnataka, like other major sugarcane producing states, has already notched a high in sugar production, accounting for 21 lakh metric ton and is expecting to touch 26 lakh metric ton against last year’s high of 17 lakh metric ton by the end of season. The area covered by sugarcane in 2006-07 in the state rose to 3.98 lakh hectares against a targeted 2.59 lakh hectares or last year’s 3.25 lakh hectares.

While macro economic factors are largely behind the suicides, there are also allegations of policies of the sugar factories and cruel local politics involving the factories. The three major cooperative factories in the region for instance are under the control of Congress politicians—the Naranja Cooperative Sugar Factory under Aurad Congress MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli; the Mahatma Gandhi Cooperative Sugar Factory under former Congress MLA Bheemanna Khandre; and the Bidar Cooperative Sugar Factory under his son Ishwar Khandre.

... contd.