Bail out distressed tenant farmers, former bureaucrat writes to A.P. govt.

Former IAS officer E.A.S. Sarma has written to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, requesting that the federal government bail out the tenant farmers reeling underneath monetary misery and a research be undertaken to analyse the explanations for farmer suicides and formulate pro-farmer insurance policies.

Citing a National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) research, 2023, and a narrative ‘Lives Caught in Debt and Despair’ by The Hindu, printed on August 22, Mr. Sarma identified that within the area of Guntur-Palnadu, 88% farmers, 90% of them tenants, had been in debt. Most of them depend upon personal cash lenders as a result of lack of an easy accessibility to credit score from banks, he wrote.

The NABARD research reveals that farmers are being pushed into monetary misery as a result of rising enter prices, no enhance in earnings, and difficulties in accessing the federal government schemes, Mr. Sarma wrote.

Citing the research executed by the NABARD and Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Mr. Sarma stated not each tenant farmer has a Crop Cultivator Rights Card, rendering many authorities welfare schemes inaccessible to them.

He stated all households affected by suicides in Palnadu area between 2014 and 2025, as per the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) knowledge, ought to be given ex gratia in accordance to the G.O. 43.

In response to an RTI question by Rythu Swarajya Vedika, the DCRB had stated that 399 farmer suicides had been recorded in Palnadu district between January 1, 2014, and February 3, 2025.

Mr. Sarma stated the State authorities ought to take up a research involving consultants, analyse the explanations behind suicides and formulate pro-farmer insurance policies inside two months.

Steps have to be taken to make sure that all tenant farmers get the CCRCs and have easy accessibility to crop insurance coverage, he wrote.