When crop failures have forced thousands into starvation in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, farmers in central and north Bihar’s Ganga diara are making hay, well almost.
Farmers in chief minister Mrs Rabri Devi’s Raghopur constituency have chosen to cultivate ganja instead of the usual mustard and other rabi crops. That Bihar’s granaries aren’t overflowing makes the practice all the more illegal. Raghopur has the largest number of acres under ganja cultivation (more than 6,000 acres, said a farmer).

Ganja has found favour with farmers after over 20,000 million paddy and wheat bags started rotting in procurement centres of the FCI and State Food Corporation over the last two years. The farmers then took to cultivating ganja in defiance of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

“It’s a dangerous change in the crop pattern,” said Mr Ranjit Singh Rana, owner of Basdeva Farm in Dumraon, Buxar. “But the farmers have to cultivate something that is profitable.”

Mr Rana, who leads a farmers’ organisation, demanded that the government “legalise ganja cultivation”. “It will add to the state’s coffers as we are ready to pay Rs 1 lakh per year on every acre under ganja cultivation.”

Excise officials recently raided various farms in Bakhtiarpur diara where ganja is cultivated and destroyed crops worth crores of rupees. But they did not do the same in adjoining Raghopur.
“We did not want to meet the fate of the former Excise commissioner, Mr GS Kang,” said a senior official. Mr Kang was transferred as commissioner of fisheries the day he organised raids on ganja farms in Raghopur.

Asked about the farmers’ demand to “legalise” ganja production, the Excise minister, Mr Shivanand Tiwary, told The Statesman: “There is no such plan under consideration. Ganja cultivation is illegal and the government will bring all those involved in the cultivation to book.”
Mr Rana, however, asked: “If the government can issue a licence for producing and selling liquor, why can’t it do the same for ganja?”