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In the red

In the red it's November. Time for Gloriosa superba popularly known as glory lily to bloom. A few hours drive from the temple town Madurai in Tamil Nadu, it has indeed blossomed and covered hundred of hectares of land with its red flowers. It does make a pretty sight. But under the red carpet of G superba , and unknown to the state authorities concerned, is the farmers' anguish, which is driving them to death. Declared threatened in the wild, the plant saw a boost in trade when the Italian company based in Milan, India Indiana International Limited, sponsored large-scale cultivation of the plant in Tamil Nadu in 1985. Seeds of the plant are used as a raw material in the manufacture of life-saving drugs. "An initial buy-back arrangement was made, but only with the traders based at Virudhnagar district. Here, too, there was no direct interaction with the farmers involved,' says Ganesh Babu, a researcher affiliated to the Foundation for Revival of Local Health Traditions, Bangalore, Karnataka.

Despite the initial resistance, farmers were roped in the plant's cultivation, though they did keep aside a portion of their land for cultivation of traditional crops such as groundnut and paddy. Soon huge profits poured in. But it is another matter that brokers walked away with more than three-fourths of the profits. According to farmers' estimates, a total investment of Rs 90,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per hectare (ha) of land a year churned out profits more than Rs 2,00,000 per ha every year.

Initially, the profits lured the farmers. But with more farmers shifting to the cultivation of glory lily, land under the plant's cultivation increased at an unsustainable pace and soon the problems started surfacing, says R Balaguru of Alchem International, a pharmaceutical firm. By 1994, the situation worsened. The export demand was huge, but supply was almost double. Thus, prices plunged. Not all the farmers had a buy-back arrangement with the company, hence many had to sell their crops at throwaway prices or, worse still, leave them to rot.

Besides, initial investments being high, many small farmers procured loans from moneylenders, which they were unable to repay. Now more than 20 farmers have already committed suicide in Tamil Nadu. Reminiscent of the cotton farmers of Andhra Pradesh who consumed pesticides to end their lives in 1999, in Tamil Nadu farmers consumed the lily's poisonous tubers.
Agents at work Fifteen years after the cultivation of G superba started in Tamil Nadu, today almost 1,376 ha of land is under the plant. But the future of the cultivators is uncertain. When farmers sow their seeds, they can only hope they can get buyers for their crop.

"Once the Milan experiment became known, buyers from other countries came to Madurai and Virudhnagar. Even now Japan, Germany, Italy and Australia import the plant,' says Balaguru. But there is no domestic market. The country, however, does have the knowledge to use the tuber and the seed shell to make drugs to treat arthritis, says Winfred Thomas of the American College, Madurai.

Multinational companies that have their base in India as well send agents to areas where the plant is grown. The agents survey the areas and give a rough idea of the expected yield to their respective companies. This is done to project an artificial demand crisis in the market, which then leads to a fall in prices, say sources on conditions of anonymity. This is evident from the price trend. In 1998, Rs 1,500 was offered for every kg of seeds. This fell to Rs 450 per kg in the following year. "It is very easy for us to store the raw material for a year to ensure a drop in prices the following year. Most companies do the same, hence they don't buy the entire produce,' says an agent working for a reputed international pharmaceutical.

Alchem International is one of the firms that have a buy-back arrangement with 670 farmers in the region. They do profess to buying the entire produce from these farmers. However, the farmers are paid the market rate, which is fixed by the agents after survey.

After initial survey this year, agents have estimated a total demand of 240 tonnes of seeds, whereas the total supply is expected to be 450 tonnes. When there is a demand from scores of firms in more than five countries, an estimate of only 240 tonnes sounds unbelievable.

The farmers' woes worsen because of the involvement of brokers in the trade, who offer them a pittance. Consider the case of S Chetty, a farmer from Ottanchethran in Dindigul district. While he was paid mere Rs 450 a kg, the broker managed to sell it for more than Rs 1,500 a kg. But the farmers do not have an option since brokers rule the roost. They have their own

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