The expert panel on the farm loan waiver in Punjab, led by T Haque, met farmers to get their feedback at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana Tuesday. The panel, which has been constituted by Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh to assess situation of farmers debt in the state, was clearly told by the farmers that loan waiver is not a solution to end farmer suicides in Punjab. The farmers also told Haque that instead of focusing on waiving loans, they should convince private banks to lower down the rate of interest for farmers to lessen the burden. Rajiwnder Pal Singh, a farmer from Mullanpur who attended the meeting said, "The root cause of suicides is high rate of interest imposed on loans by private banks. We told the panel that loan waiver is only a temporary solution to the problem of farmer suicides. Also, majority of the farmers who are under debt have taken loans from arthiyas and private banks not cooperative banks. Farmers commit suicide when interest mounts. We want private banks to give loans to farmers at four to five percent rate of interest." Farmers also told Haque that while on one side state and central government is asking farmers to adopt diversification and leave paddy-wheat farming, the farmers who want to pursue dairy or fishery or poultry and other allied sectors are not given support by either cooperative or private banks. "Current farm loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh announced by the government is also only crop loan waiver. There is no word on debt of farmers pursuing dairy, fishery etc. Cooperative banks also do not cooperate with us and we ultimately depend on private banks for loan at high rates leading to suicides," said another farmer. Ashok Kumar, director extension education PAU said that farmers were invited from different districts to participate in discussion with Haque and need to study reasons behind farmer suicides was the focus of the meeting. Farmers from PAU Kisan Club also participated and told Haque that even if loans of farmers are waived off once, the problem will remain the same from the next season. They said that the loan waiver can give relief to some extent but the problem of farm suicide calls for a permanent solution. And the major solution to the problem lies in getting rate of interest reduced by private banks. Farmers also told Haque that loan waiver announced by government is not talking about loans taken from arthiyas (commission agents) in any way which infact is the major source of loans as cooperative banks do not give loan beyond a set limit. Then, arthiyas remain as the only option and majority farmers take from them. Meanwhile, Haque said, “There is a need to evaluate and study the reasons leading to farm suicides in the present scenario. It is now becoming evident that agriculture is now a costly profession whereas returns to the farmers are very less. We will be submitting our report soon to CM." The state government plans to waive up to Rs 2 lakh crop loan of the small and marginal farmers and has announced Rs 1,500 crore as interim relief in the budget.
