Plastic Bodies - sweat and rainfall

The monsoon has finally arrived here in Bengal. As Kaleidoscope travels more and more intensively through the length and breadth of Junglemahal, it's clearer that forest and people have many more stories to tell than perhaps Kaleidoscope could ever write down. Not every story is verbatim. 

Seedbed is ready for transplant, and this is one of the busiest times for the people in Junglemahal. The furniture shop owner, the electric contractors or, for that matter, the white-collar professionals are now busy with their gumboots. Its time to spend time in tilling the soil and sowing the paddy. For the next three months, it would be a long wait for the land to hold the crop - like a long gestation.

Women returning home after the days work in the crop field is over

Meanwhile, there are plastic-wrapped bodies coming and going to the field with a small container in hand.  What does it hold? Panta bhat - the water-soaked rice of the previous night - a piece of onion and perhaps a whole chilli for lunch for the women. 

What about the kids? Would they continue to wrap their bodies? Perhaps Kaleidoscope could never know but for now, he could capture something beautiful here.

Village girls returning from the school

Kaleidoscope knows, perhaps his workplace is the last refuge to many of them - to delay what is called life - marriage, kids and cycles. 

Demonetisation – a Banking on Social Capital: Narratives from West Bengal

Unless there is 'satistics' people think nothing happens, India's Growth story after demonetisation, taken from The Telegraph, 1st June, 2017, page, 1

There has rather been a limited protest against the demonetisation initiatives taken in November 2016. Several economists of repute have criticized the demonetisation move. The disturbing reports of about a hundred deaths till December (DNA, India 2016) makes it difficult to comprehend the apparent peaceful assimilation of demonetisation effect by an otherwise vibrant public sphere of the country. In fact, it is expected that the recent election result in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Delhi would make many to rethink their theorisation on demonitisation drive. To make sense of such dilemma, first it is important to understand the nature of the impact of Demonetisation at rural India. There are reports of problems related to currency supply (Kumar 2017), cash shortage and its impact on farming because of inability of the farmers to hire labour (Takle 2016). Instances of destruction of premature tomato crops because of price fall (Aga and Choudhuri 2017, Shaikh 2016), farmer’s suicide in Telengana (Rahul 2016), shutting down of bidi binding units in West Bengal (Patra 2016), and an overall downfall of labour employment (The Indian Express 2016) are some of the major issues surfaced in recent past. While there are serpentine queues at the banks and ATMs everywhere, the poor and marginal experience the harshest blow. Only a small part of such inconveniences are reported. Ghandy (2016) mentions untold sufferings and chaos, reporting some of those untold sufferings is primary objective of this article. While reports of labour crisis, farmers’ suicide attract wide attention, there is a significant absence of the study of people’s day to day adjustments with the effects of demonetisation. Such events are hitherto unknown and almost never reported. 




One of the main reasons for the absence of mass protests from rural areas of the country is, of course, the failure of opposition parties to mobilize people effectively. However, as this field based article reflects, politicisation of protests against demonetisation by opposition explains only a miniscule part of the whole story; there are other, more grounded reasons that silence the protests before they can form. Since, there is a lack of mass protests, BJP and its allies often argue that much of the crises as reported by the opposition and media are politically cooked up phenomena. There are three common hypotheses made popular in explaining the lack of rural protests, a) people have accepted the necessary discomforts because of a 'better future', which is branded effectively by linking demonetisation with patriotism, ‘surgical strike’ against black money and cashless economy, b) people do not need more money than what is being dispensed by the banks, c) people have accepted such initiatives because of their accumulated disgust in facing everyday corrupt practices and they believe that this move would ‘definitely’ make an impact on corrupt people including politicians. However, these are at best hypotheses, and there is no field based concrete study on people’s perception of this sudden policy initiative. This article is an attempt to tease out some of the reasons that has the capacity to explain the silence silence of public sphere. I am doing field based ethnographic research in different Gram Panchayats (the village level lowest tier of three tier panchayat system) of Bardhaman, Bankura, Nadia, Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts in West Bengal on politics and everyday life of peasant societies. As part of this research I have experienced and collected some narratives on the ways in which people are adapting with demonetisation. Here, I have presented two major players of rural economy a) the small and marginal farmers, and b) small businessmen and informal economy.

I have seen that the impact is yet to reach the marginal farmers, primarily because of their existing powerful debt network. It is well known that with land reform movement, West Bengal has a significant number of small and marginal farmers. In most of the southern fertile delta plain they depend on a typical mechanism of debt network. This network exists most strongly in districts where cultivation is profitable, such as Bardhaman, Purba Medinipur, Nadia and parts of Paschim Medinipur. The nature of dependency most often begins in water debt network. The relatively well off farmers give water on credit to the small and marginal farmers. This is a typical exchange relationship in post land reform movement of the state which is aided by the substantive development of private water markets and onslaught of summer paddy (known as boro) (Nath, 2013a, b). The ‘quasi-zamindars’ – people having considerable amount (usually three to five acres) of land along with substantive income from other sources like teaching at schools or participation in informal storage economy usually own sources of ground water or pump sets necessary for lift irrigation. Marginal farmers are supposed to depend on these people to borrow water, manure, pesticides and other essential items of farming. At the end of each crop cycle, the quasi-zamindars are the persons to whom these marginal farmers are bound to sale their produce often at a throwaway price (Nath and Chakrabarti 2012). No matter how exploitative it may seem, this mechanism involves a considerable amount of ‘social capital’ networked through informal channels of economic and extra economic (such as friendship-neighbourhood network) relationships. A holistic and contextual combination of these factors ultimately constitutes the economic exchange relationships between marginal farmers, quasi- zamindars, storage and rice mill networks and ultimately the consumers. With demonetisation drive, this section is affected badly but through a time buffer formed by existing social capital. The credit network is made expensive after the demonetisation drive. 

“Yes, we have to pay more. They had no choice than to raise the price, because, right now we are not paying anything, they are bearing our cost and they have no cash in hand” said a marginal farmer from Baghnapara region of Bardhaman district (in Dcember 2016).

However, the price rise is not smooth everywhere. There are unreported minor conflicts in different places of Bardhaman, Hoogly, Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts. This effect also has a gendered dimension. The farmers nearby Mukutmanipur river dam in Bankura borrow pump-sets from the Self Help Group (SHG) members. The SHGs have procured such sets on loan. SHG members, who are exclusively women, are not allowed to raise the rates.




“We have told them that this is a government property, you have bought this on loan, where the GP has played a crucial role. Do not make price rise in so far as you can pay the loan instalments” – said one of the Trinamool Congress leaders of the region in January 2017.




Perhaps the difference is to be found both in the nature of economic transactions and gender issues. I have found that in several villages of Bardhaman, Birbhum, Hoogly, Purba and Paschim Medinipur districts, the privately owned sources are running on diesel or on electricity given by the pump-owners. In consequence, there is not much control of the marginal farmers over the time and extent of pump usage. For instance, in Hooghly, a user is supposed to declare the time duration of pump use. In case of diesel run pumps fuel is allotted accordingly. Electricity run pumps can be switched off easily. Hence, there is a difference between private owners and SHG owners, which further clarifies the cost of demonetisation imposed on already indebted small and marginal farmers.

Figure 1 A comparison of key factors of farming and impact of demonetisation (source: field data from Bardhaman, and Purba Medinipur)

As figure 1 suggests a large section of the small and marginal farmers are bearing the cost of the demonetisation, which is expected to have a long-term effect. While there is a stark increase in the key materials for farming in last ten years, demonetisation is making the situation worse. Apart from the cost of labour which has gone down because of lack of available employment opportunities, every other resource for farming is made costly. However, the apparent silence from different corners of peasant society is because of two related reasons, a) small and marginal farmers yet to feel the impact of demonetisation because of the buffer of existing social capital, and b) political parties have failed to bring social movements by involving these sections of the society.




As part of my research, I also work closely with the informal economy of the GPs. I have tried to understand the nature of the impact of demonetisation on rural informal economy. We can still recall the day after declaration of demonetisation initiatives some newspapers featured Mr. Narendra Modi promoting Paytm, an e-wallet as an alternative to cash. The symbolic value of Paytm is made parallel to cashless economy. It was followed by many news papers, eventually, as they reported and featured photos showing small shopkeepers, auto drivers accepting Paytm. However, as expected, Paytm is not an alternative to cash. The question is, in what ways India’s gigantic informal economy, bazaars and weekly haats have withstand the effect of demonetisation? During the first week of November, I was travelling to different places of Bardhaman and Purba Medinipur and I could see for first four to five days, there were demands for hundred rupee notes and rejection of five hundred or thousand rupee notes by the sellers. In consequence, people stopped making purchases unless it was absolutely necessary. Markets like Barabazar in Nabadwip, Nadia, weekly market of Howrah, Purba Medinipur was literally closed down. It is seen that, after the first week of demonetisation, in most of the places the shop keepers and stall holders started to accept old currency to run their business.  The immediate effect was felt by the small and marginal traders of perishable items, many of whom had to experience tremendous amount of loss. In a group discussion three factors become prominent in one of the daily markets in Purbasthali, Bardhaman:
Non acceptance of old notes means no sale; it simply cannot go on for long.
The people will not spare us (the sellers) if they do not get what they need.
If we do not accept old notes and others do, we would lose the customers.


We needed assurance from the wholesalers and suppliers. Since they have said that they will accept old notes, we have no problem to do the same.




Many other rural markets have put forth similar responses during this study. Quite clearly the market principle has compelled the old currency to circulate once more after demonetisation. However, because of the stipulated deadlines to submit the old notes to the bank, these were quickly deposited in different banks. It continued for several weeks until another blow came with the use of indelible ink, and eventually stopped when it was made mandatory for a person to give declaration and state reasons for possessing old currencies. In another discussion it appeared that with a linkage of election like procedures in the use of indelible ink, association of black money related stigma, penalty and the loss of man days at banks, people once again started to reject old notes. In December-January period, for weeks the daily rationing for thousands of families continued to run on credit. The entire economic activities through informal sector, to a significant extent ran on social capital. People gave credit to their regular customers and took materials on credit from their known suppliers.
In sum it appears that BJP government banked on existing social capital at an undetermined and unknown cost. There are many factors that escape popular perceptions and analysis like:


Loss of man days because of compulsory queuing at banks
Loss of resources (both material and human) because of a sudden fall of consumer’s demand
Indirect price rise because of rising prices in factors of agriculture productions.
Significant fall in labour demands not only in metro cities like Delhi but also in rural areas.

Such issues as stated above are difficult to translate in pure economic terms. However, it appears that the responses towards the demonetisation effort is yet to be felt, because of two reasons: a) the buffer provided by existing social capital and b) the actual situation is made mystified through the use of a strong hegemonic mechanism of prominent and powerful symbols like ‘Deshbhakti’-the patriotism, anti-corruption drive and sentiments associated with Mr. Modi’s charismatic appeal. Interestingly, BJP has banked with social capital not only in existing economic relations but also with the major part of public discourse which discussed about black money for quite some time (Reddy, 2017). It was indeed a calculated move, which despite of its dark sides appears to win popular consent. However, the apparent silence among the farmers and informal sector employees could only mean that the gruesome manifestation of demonetisation is waiting to appear in near future. Even when they appear it would hardly be linked with demonetisation. As one can easily understand that a farmer’s suicide at some point of time in 2017 would be linked with family conflict and never with demonetisation on November 08, 2016.

Reference:
Aga, Aniket & Chitrangada Choudhury (2017): “Demonetisation Takes the Sauce out of Nashik’s Tomatoes. National Herald, January 5, 2017, Accessed from http://www.nationalheraldindia.com/news/2017/01/05/farmers-in-nashik-maharashtra-destroying-standing-tomato-crops-following-rock-bottom-prices-after-demonetisation on January 26, 2017.
DNA India (2016): “Demonetization: Government not mourning over 100 deaths due to cash-Crunch, says Opposition.” Accessed from http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-demonetisation-government-not-mourning-over-100-deaths-due-to-cash-crunch-says-opposition-2280902 on January 23, 2017
Ghandy, Kobad (2016): “Demonetisation: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” Economic and Political Weekly, vol 51, issue 50, pp. 28-30.
Ghatak, Maitreesh., & Maitreya Ghatak (2002): “Recent Reform in the Panchayat System in West Bengal,” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 37, Vol 1, pp. 45-57.
Kohli, Atul (2011): “Politics and Redistribution.” In N. G. Jayal and P. B. Mehta (Eds.), Oxford Companion to Politics in India, pp. 499-509. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kumar, Arun (2017): “Economic Consequences of Demonetisation” Economic and Political Weekly, vol 52, issue 1, pp. 14-17.
Nath, Suman (2013a): “Water Politics: Notes from Bardhaman, West Bengal.” Exploring Development, Institute of Social Sciences, March 15, 2013, Accessed from https://expldev.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/water-politics-notes-from-bardhaman-west-bengal-suman-nath/ on January 27, 2016
Nath, Suman (2013b): “Joler Dor Thik Kore Rajniti, Tai Chash Kore Labh Thake Naa Chhoto Chashir (Water Politics and its Impact on Marginal Farmers, in Bengali).” Anandabazar Patrika, April 20, 2013.
Nath, Suman, & Bhaskar Chakrabarti (2011): “Political Economy of Cold Storages in West Bengal” Commodity Vision, Vol 4, No 4, pp. 36-42.
Patra, Arunava (2016): “Note Ban sends Beedi Units up in Smoke” Pari, December 17, 2016. Accessed from https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/note-ban-sends-beedi-units-up-in-smoke/ on January 26, 2016.
Rahul, M (2016a). “Curry Mixed with Demonetisation and a Pinch of Pesticide” Pari, November 22,2016. Accessed from https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/curry-mixed-with-demonetisation-and-a-pinch-of-pesticide/ on January 26,2017.
Reddy, Rammanohar C (2017): Demonetisation and Black Money. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan
Shaikh, Zeeshan (2016): “Nashik: Farmers Getting Re 1/kg for Tomatoes” The Indian Express, December 12, 2016. Accessed from http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/nashik-farmers-getting-re-1kg-for-tomatoes-4422624/ on January 26, 2017.
Takle, Niranjan (2016): “Demonetisation Spells Disaster for Farmers in Nasik” The Week, Dember 01, 2016. Accessed from http://www.theweek.in/news/india/demonetisation-spells-disaster-farmers-nasik.html on January 26, 2017.
The Indian Express (2016): “Demonetisation Brings Labour Industry to a Standstill” Indian Express, November 24, 2016. Accessed from http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/demonetisation-brings-labour-industry-to-standstill-4392814/ on January 26, 2017. Termed as ‘new class’ by Cohli 2011, also studied by Ghatak and Ghatak (2002)

The Civilisation and Question of Love: Part IV Farming and Biggest Blunders

Yes the exploration continues over the question of love. In doing so kaleidoscope wishes to show how the advent of farming has severely affected the nature of love. While kaleidoscope says so, he presumes two things first, love is a different feeling than sexual drive. Although sexual drives do have significant connection with love, but love as a feeling can transcend sexual impulses. Therefore, one can love asexually; one can love even without thinking about sex at all. Second, love is a pleasure that comes instantaneously but it requires investment of time and emotions to nurture it. It does mean that if you do not have time you would definitely lose love to a significant extent. 

Love is a highly valued commodity now a day

Love is highly valued but less thought of or cared for. We tend to equate love with commitment to monogamy. We tend to equate relationships with the concept of property. Therefore, everything related to commitment boils down to the question of physical relationships. Being physically intimate with someone else than your partner is the highest form of betrayal. Even in the court of law this holds to be true. In this blog Kaleidoscope wishes to address the issue of love, temporal investments in love and its link to farming and rest of the civilisation.

THE HISTORICAL BLUNDER

For millions of years we were happy with hunting and gathering. We have colonised most part of the world and yet remained hunters and gatherers. The massive mistake, yes kaleidoscope calls it a mistake was conceded by a group of people about 10 thousand years BC somewhere near south western Turkey. The surplus theory which says that the entire civilisation, development etc. has come out of agriculture surplus has actually resulted in misery in average Homo sapiens life and has generated population explosion, and a class of elites (Diamond 1997).

What makes kaleidoscope conclude that farming was a blunder? From purely biological point of view farming before the advent of market economy has yielded nothing but toiling of our ancestors. We were supposed to be expert climbers of trees, trapping games and collecting a wide variety of food to satisfy our omnivorous selves. Instead of doing that we have started taking care of wheat plants throughout the year and there was no look back. We cleared up rocks for them, we fetched water for them sacrificing our lumbar spine and in return wheat has given us carbohydrates. Because these plants needed constant care they have domesticated us. We could not roam around freely. Even today we crave for a vacation, and we spend thousands to enjoy the vacation. If we did not cultivate we could have been much smaller in number with much larger space to live in and a much larger forest to roam around.

Although it is difficult for today to imagine the dire consequences farming sitting in an air-conditioned room enjoying all the luxuries of capitalist society, however we are enjoying all the luxuries at the expense of our ancestors who died of malnutrition, settled to take care of plants in settlements which were hotbed of infectious diseases.

In a foraging society people are usually happy with a wide range of foods to eat, almost no question of malnutrition. In contrast with settled farming society people are to depend more on a particular kind of diet. While our ancestors thought that they need to work harder to make farming more profitable, they did that and for a while they fetched returns too, but the philosophy of their life altered fundamentally. The new philosophy said the harder you work the more profit you make, thereby you are more secure in life.

FUTURISTIC DREAMS:

The very concept future might be linked to farming. In a hunting gathering society there is no point of thinking about tomorrow. It has been a society which is ever present. Everyday you need to go out with your band to hunt and gather. You get your share, you eat, you sleep, you play and you listen to myths and perform rituals. When games and other resources are increasingly becoming scarce you migrate. Not much to think about. With the advent of farming you are constantly thinking about the future. The entire life's philosophy is futuristic in terms of yield, weather and uncertainties. Living in future is a trend that we have inherited and carry with us all the time.

As many of the ethnographers who have worked with recently settled hunting gathering tribes know how difficult it is to make them understand the importance of savings and having bank accounts. Kaleidoscope has studied the savings behaviour of Santals and compared them with neighbouring Mahato communities to find a stark difference. In Jindal Steel Works at Salboni he has found that while Mahatos are able to save some amount of the compensation money, most of the Santal families have made immediate expenditure mostly by celebrating festivals, and in consumption of liquor.

The whole philosophy of work harder for a better tomorrow (which of course never comes) is rooted to this grave mistake of farming. Therefore, Santals who are still hunter and gatherers in their soul fail to understand the need for savings for a future. While we were told that hard work will result in better (luxurious) future it was a lie. It was a lie because what we consider luxury today becomes tomorrow's necessity with newer luxuries hanging beyond us.

FUTURE, SPECIALISATION AND LOVE:

When we constantly think about future uncertainty and luxuries we tend to toil harder in our work at hand. Our brain is taught constantly to work harder with an immediate and also long term goals to achieve. Working hard does not end. We have to be very focus on what we do. Therefore, we are to choose from the available alternatives. These alternatives are given by historical forces, such as family, friend and other associations. Most often we fail to choose what really interests us. Therefore, we are living in someone else's life from the very beginning, we take the burden of someone else's dreams, we are worried about future which was designed for someone else.

In a relationship we tend to equate property rights over the rights over individuals. Womenfolk are the worst sufferers of such a concept. They have been equated with land and reproductive instruments. With time these have only become altered to adopt different forms. Even today virginity is considered as a woman's greatest virtue. Faithfulness is equated with pretention of having a happy life within the lawful marriage rather than love and care.

With such entanglements of someone else in my body and soul we tend to mount on a career horse to reach a future, thereby making our lives ever more complicated. Durkheim once stated the difference between mechanical solidarity (feature of pre-modern society where people usually perform similar tasks) and organic solidarity (modern society works as a organ system with specialisation, people perform different specialised roles). Yes we are specialised to perform certain kinds of works and we do them with ever greater hardship.

Therefore, we have specialists for everything. We even have specialists for working on love and relationships we call them poets, writers and sometimes Archie's gallery. Specialists are framing words, taking photographs, painting and selling them to us in exchange of our labour in our particular field.

The more we engage future, the more we need to work harder, the more we work hard in a specialised arena the less we have time to do other things. The more we are integrated in organic solidarity the less we have time for other things, such as love. Increasingly our species would become lonelier and miserable with machine like soullessness.

“Water water everywhere...” What the fuss does that mean?

Portion of Kangsabati river barrage.

The pictorial Mukutmanipur dam which halts water flow of the river Kumari and Kansabati and irrigates parts of Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur and Hooghly provides one of examples of the bitter and unreported experiences of what happens in neighbouring villages of large scale dam constructions. People a couple of generations ago have seen villages submerged under water, large scale evacuation process and irrevocable loss of social and emotional bonding.

What did they get in return is perhaps the most vital question. To understand this question I have been roaming around villages of Dhagora, Peerless para, Ekkaduar, Nadupara, Jambedia and Barghutu. Each of the villages fall under Gorabari Gram Panchayat which is now controlled by the Trinamool Congress. Mostly Tribal people like Santals, Bhumijs and a few families of Mundas occupy these villages. Some Scheduled Caste groups like Teli, Lohar and Bene live in some of the villages in the region.  While the dam is filled with water regulated by the irrigation department to irrigate different parts of the neighbouring districts people in the adjascent villages keep depending on the rainwater to cultivate.  Excepting the village Jambedia the rest of the villages cultivate a single crop and the amount they got is just enough for preparing next year’s seeds and providing their family a couple of rice meals throughout the year.

What makes the difference?

The difference which will be discussed soon is solely an outcome of positional advantage of the Jambedia than the rest of the villages. Jambedia which is about five kilometres south-west from the head regulator of the Kangsabati river barrage, have the closest farmlands from the dam water.  Villagers use suction pump to pull out water to irrigate their farm lands. Interestingly the strategic locational advantage of the village farmland is a result of the evacuation process. The village headman, the Majhi, who is old enough to see and remember the actual process of evacuation reports that people from Jambedia village have lost their land and bought new lands from neighbouring villages like Surigram and Jhanti-Pahari which are now disappeared under water. The irrigation results in production of multiple crops which is otherwise impossible in the region. The Self Help Group (SHG) initiatives taken by the Panchayat have resulted in the availability of loans and the village SHG members have purchased several such pumps to irrigate their farm land in arid seasons. However, similar SHGs of the adjacent villages did not buy simply because they barely have access to the water that they see every day from their village.

The nature of difference:

One crop makes a family to survive two crops ensure educational attainments and three crops makes significant impact on health and well being. I did Participatory Rural Appraisal as well as Focus Group Discussions to find out the nature of educational and occupational attainments of the villagers. It is seen that Jambedia has several college going students and has sons and daughters working as school teachers, government employees and as other white-collar workers. This has been possible because on average they could afford to send their children not only to the schools but also to the colleges and even to universities. Other villages have school going children, perhaps a good result of the Mid-day meal programme but none of the villagers could afford to continue their child’s post-school education. Young boys are sent to cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune to do construction works. While they stay abroad for a long period of time, it is reported by several villagers that they have high rate of Sexually Transmitted Disease, perhaps a common trend among the migrant labourers.

The possibilities:

While water scarcity is the main factor behind the difference between Jambedia and the rest, the Gorabari Gram Panchayat is constantly trying to improve water retention by constructing hapa, small water reservoir with the help of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme. My two years field visit in the region shows that while the Gram Panchayat has planned innovatively to create hapas and interconnecting them to ensure long-term water retention, it is extremely difficult to convince villagers to provide land where such interconnected hapas can be constructed. There is no initiative from the irrigation department to install possible schemes like River Lift Irrigation, may be because it would reduce actual irrigation potential. However, in consequence villagers apart from Jambedia continue to toil for water which is plenty but inaccessible.  

Will FDI combat the agro-politics in West Bengal?

The answer probably is "we will never know." We will never know until it is implemented. Meanwhile, there are strong protests from different corners.

Kaleidoscope thought this is a high time share his experience with cold storage politics in Bardhaman, West Bengal.

The story:

Kaleidoscope went to Baghnapara region where annual production of potato has been quite high. The troubles which Kaleidoscope and his boss had, was with the losses of farmers both with under and over productions of Potato and an increasing rate of farmers' suicide. Kaleidoscope visited several stakeholders of the cold storage including the farmers, middlemen, local political personalities, storage owners, investors and a couple of families having their members committed suicide because of huge loss and indebtedness with potato cultivation.

 

The story goes roughly like this:

Pre-cultivation:

A. Farmers' decision to cultivate potato

B. Local loan providers' willingness to lend money.

C. Store-owners's assurance of giving space to store

Post-cultivation:

A. Production with huge loaned amount - resulting selling off potato at throwaway price.

B. Production but space crunch at storeage - resulting selling off potato at throwaway price.

C. Having space and holding potato for right price - high interest rate of the loan providers and ultimately selling off the potato bond (the paper which contains information regarding the amount of potato deposited) to the loan provider at considerably low price.

D Holding potato - but then sudden fall in the price rate incurring loss

Politics and economics of potato bond

The potato bond usually goes from one hand to another in exchange of money. Quite often the money is borrowed from local money lenders - who frequently is the cold storage owner or a large share holder. Therefore, at the end of the season, the entire produce of the region goes under control of a handful of people who can then control the market price effectively. Their political nexus is strong enough to influence regional leaderships.

The potato chain, (ref. Nath, Suman and Chakrabarti, Bhaskar. (2011). Political Economy of Cold Storages in West Bengal, Commodity Vision, 4(IV): 36- 42

What FDI promises:

So far Kaleidoscope understands, FDI promises direct purchase of items from the farmers and then direct sell to the consumers, so as to remove the price hike and less payment to farmers by the middlemen. Kaleidoscope's cold-storage experience much plausibly suggests that FDI would definitely improve the condition of the small and marginal farmers. Kaleidoscope however is living with a few questions.

The questions:

1. Does a state like West Bengal have the infrastructure where foreign traders can go to remote villages and purchase items directly from them? 

If they does not, wouldn't it create a new class of middlemen who will make profit by directly procuring items and selling them to the traders?

2. Could not we make better financing system available at the villagers so that the money lenders fail to exploit them? 

3. Shouldn't we make stronger agro-cooperatives who can directly deal with the markets, even if there is no FDI?

3. Should not we make a concrete data bank on cold-storages and their distributions and start imposing regulatory mechanism so that local co-operatives can work effectively?

Kaleidoscope thinks that if these infrastructures are build up, agro-cooperatives can negotiate with foreign traders better and make most out of it. If the negotiations fail they can independently build up marketing mechanisms for better profit and better price.

Farmers’ Suicide: The fragmented class and their unconsciousness

With his inquisitive mindset Kaleidoscope travels through some of the highest potato producing villages in West Bengal a few months back. Last week one of the villagers calls him to inform that one of his research participants, Mr. X has committed suicide.

Why?

Apparently, it is a heated debate between Mr. X and his wife which compels Mr. X to consume pesticide to die eventually. Pretty straight in surface. However, underneath of this incident there is an endless story of his debt to the cold storage owner and local money lenders. Cumulated by the huge loss with potato cultivation and business for last two years.

What happens in potato business?

It’s a tricky game of investment and return. Sometimes you are paid enough. Sometimes your property is at stake. An unpredictable fluctuation can haunt you and can change you. Usually, the small scale cultivators invest in the business, as series of middlemen hinders them from profit making. When you are into the business, you are given loan from storage owners, middlemen, and local money lenders. Either you pay back with high rate of interest or you sell the “potato bond” – the paper containing information of stored potato. When you take loan, you are to exchange the “bond” to pay off or simply to sustain as the interest increases rapidly. When you exchange “bond” the buyer takes loan – again a debt remains unpaid.

A journey to nowhere!

A small scale farmer can have a big dream with potato investment. Kaleidoscope finds examples and rumours about investment in potato business and overnight profit. When, one enters in the business chain he is aided. With aids, and cheap availability of potato (highly perishable) he is easily motivated to invest even more. Eventually, even if the price raises, existing debt, family maintenance, and labour cost gives a marginal return.

What does it have to do with class consciousness?

While one might find difficulty in placing these phenomena with the concept of trade union, it is not difficult to understand the nature of exploitation through formal and informal channels. The small scale investors do not form a group. They are not organised, they do not have an organisation. The oligopoly of cold storages, coalition between existing power groups use this fragmented sector to maximise their utility.

Well, bringing class consciousness and organising their activities is a day dream. The sector is inherently fragmented in different ways including location, class, caste, religion, and political ideology.

Either we can wait for class consciousness to disembark and watch thousands (more than 17,500 farmers between 2002 – 2006, Patel, 2007) of farmers committing suicide which is increasing each year (Meeta and Rajivlochan, 2006) or we can raise our voices compelling our Govt. to come with concrete policy principally by breaking this oligopoly and developing micro credit facilities.

See for more details:

Harris-White, B. (2008). Rural Commercial Capital: Agricultural Markets in West bengal. New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune.

Patel, R. (2007). Stuffed and Starved, Portobello Books

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/2/142224/7768/77/703705

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101514820800.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/15/stories/2006101514820800.htm

http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7383662.stm

http://books.google.com/books?id=npZ3xnaY7FYC&dq=Meeta+and+Rajivlochan+(2006)+Farmers+suicide:+facts+and+possible+policy+interventions&source=gbs_navlinks_s