by BEED, India (AP) – On an uncomfortably hot day last May, farm worker Shobha Londhe is reminded of the desperate conditions that led her husband to take his own life. It’s the hottest and driest summer in years, she said, and for farm workers that often means little to no income, mounting debt and unbearable heat.
Londhe, a resident of the village of Talegaon in western India, knows the toll these droughts caused by climate change can take on farmers. Three years ago, she said the family’s financial situation was unsustainable as crops failed due to too much heat and not enough water. Her husband Tatya went out to the fields one October day, and never returned.
“It was a struggle because we were always in debt,” said Londhe, a framed picture of her husband next to her. She partly blames his death on the increasingly hot and dry weather in her home region of Marathwada in Maharashtra state. “We are totally dependent on rainwater for agriculture,” she said.
Londhe is one of India’s 120 million farmers who share dwindling water resources as groundwater is pumped out faster than rainfall can replenish it. Drought-prone areas like Marathwada are at the sharp end of the shortage, making life unbearable for many. As the country continues to vote in its marathon six-week election, farmers are looking for longer-term solutions to the water problem, such as building canal networks from distant rivers. But the politicians have promised little and little has been done to secure water for them, with activists saying that priority is being given to big businesses and big farms instead.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know in India needs help, contact AASRA at 982-046-6726. In the United States, the national suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
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In the western state of Maharashtra, persistent droughts caused by human-induced climate change have partly added to the problems for farmers, forcing them to take out loans to buy crops. Community members say when those crops also fail, it drives some farmers to take their own lives. According to government estimates, 1,088 farmers died by suicide in Marathwada last year, and federal government records show that the number of farmers and farm workers dying by suicide across the country has been increasing in recent years. India.
Debt, crop failure, alcohol addiction and lack of jobs are some of the reasons for the high suicide rate among farmers, says local politician and head of Dhondrai village, Shital Sakhare. “We’re trying to help young people get more jobs outside of farming so they don’t take drastic measures,” she said.
Londhe said the heat, failing crops and money problems have been getting worse since her husband’s death. “This summer, we can’t even find work as workers, it’s becoming difficult for us to survive,” she said. Scientists say the frequency and severity of droughts are being driven by human-caused climate change, with over-extraction of groundwater and lack of conservation contributing to the crisis.
In most villages in the region visited by The Associated Press, water tankers funded by the local government were stationed around the main squares to provide residents with drinking water. But the villagers still had no water for their dying crops: the Sindhphana tributary that runs through the region was dry, as were most of the reservoirs. There was almost no election campaign in the region at issue.
This is despite the fact that farmers in the area are politically active, and “they vote every time there are elections,” said 76-year-old Sarjerao Gholap, a resident and retired leader of Talegaon village. But when politicians don’t act on their promises, many lose faith in the process, he said.
Gholap said politicians from different parties in the past promised to establish a canal to supply water to their village, ensure better prices for their products and supply of running water through hand pumps. Gholap said that none of these have been implemented, and no water comes from the hand pump that was installed in the village a year ago.
Manisha Tokle, an activist based in Beed, said most politicians in the region favor those who already have economic power, such as the upper caste, large landholding farmers, sugar factory owners and pesticide manufacturers. “They don’t think about small farmers, women workers and farm workers,” she said.
The average wage for farm workers has remained at around $3 to $4 a day for at least 15 years according to Indian government data, despite repeated calls from farmers’ groups across the country for it to increase in proportion to rising costs. Vegetable prices rose by 27% this year compared to the previous year and tomato and onion costs increased by 38% and 29%.
Atul Jadhav, 26, a smallholder farmer in Kambi village in the region, said the returns on farming are so bad that he “will not let” his children take it up when they are older.
He spends 5,000 rupees ($60) every day to water his five-acre field of sweet lime and sugar cane, but the soil is still bone-dry, and most plants are dead or wilted. “I don’t know if anything will remain if this heat continues, but I have to try,” Jadhav said.
Village head Sakhare said farmers frustrated with the shortage of water need to vote in large numbers to get the issue on the table, admitting that it is not high on the mind of politicians.
But she warned that while politicians can do more to help find alternative sources of water, promote less water-intensive crops or provide financial support to farmers, “they cannot mitigate the effects of climate change be reversed.”
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