Why are Indian farmers killing themselves?

Why are Indian farmers killing themselves? For Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), part of the Geneva-based International Institute for Sustainable Development, the key to this question is shut in the rich countries' blue and green boxes (the blue box subsidies and the green box subsidies).

While the former are the direct subsidies to farmers, the latter come in the form of assistance under heads like technology, conservation and so on.

But not any more, says the GSI, which is launching a multi-level attack against farm subsidies. "Good or bad, we should know when they (subsidies) exist," says Damon Dunbar of the organisation.

Launched a year ago, this non-profit initiative is keeping an eye on how subsidies undermine efforts to put the world economy on a path toward sustainable development.

Its spokesperson Javed Ahmed says the organisation is an honest broker of information on subsidies. The idea is to keep it all in the open so that people in the countries that are most affected know the implications.

The general sentiment in GSI is despair at the lack of initiative in countries like India which are most affected by global farm subsidies. Even the media here is silent, despite the obvious repercussions, says Ahmed.

As one of its admirers, Vijay Jawandhia, a wealthy cotton farmer from Wardha says, "Who is afraid of free trade. Not us. But let it be fair," referring to the Doha Round of talks at the WTO, where India has been asked by the rich countries to lower subsidies to farmers.

"In America, in 1998, cotton prices fell from $1 to 38 cents for a pound of cotton but not a single US farmer committed suicide. Why?" he asks.

The GSI has an answer. The US's 25,000 cotton farmers get $3.7 billion in subsidies for growing cotton worth that amount. The exporters of this cotton are rewarded with about $180 million for buying the cotton.

With trade liberalised since the world adopted the WTO norms, the cotton prices have sunk low due to the cheap subsidised cotton from the US. This, it says, it the cause of the distress among farmers in the developing world.

About the subsidies in India, Jawandhia says, "Take away all our subsidies here. These don't benefit the small farmer anyway."

The small farmer in the US would agree with him, for there too, the subsidies are known to help large farmers. In the UK, for example, a query under the right to information revealed that the Queen of England was one of the top beneficiaries of farm subsidies.