Farmers' suicides in India

Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in India in the last decade due to multiple reasons. Most suicides have occurred in states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab.Fact|date=September 2008

History

In the 1990s India woke up to a spate of farmers suicides. The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra. Soon newspapers began to report similar occurrences from Andhra Pradesh. In the beginning it was believed that most of the suicides were happening among the cotton growers, especially those from Vidarbha. A look at the figures given out by the State Crime Records Bureau, however, was sufficient to indicate that it was not just the cotton farmer but farmers as a professional category were suffering, irrespective of their holding size. [1. Meeta and Rajivlochan (2006) Farmers suicide: facts and possible policy interventions, Yashada, Pune, pp. 11-13. ] Moreover, it was not just the farmers from Vidarbha but all over Maharashtra who showed a significantly high suicide rate. The government appointed a number of inquiries to look into the causes of farmers suicide and farm related distress in general. Subsequently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vidarbha and promised a package of Rs. 11,000 crores to be spent by the government in Vidarbha. The families of farmers who had committed suicide were also offered an ex gratia grant to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh by the government. This figure kept on varying, depending on how much flak the government was facing from the media and the opposition parties for being uncaring towards the farmers' plight. Such a high figure was ironic considering that the net average income of a family of farmers in this region was approximately Rs. 2700 per acre per annum. The economic plight of the farmer might be illustrated with the fact that a farmer having as much as 15 acres of land, and hence considered a well-off farmer, had an income of just a little more than what he would have earned were he to merely get the legal minimum wage for all of the 365 days of the year. Little wonder that despite government efforts at pumping in more money into the suicide belt the suicide epidemic among farmers remained unabated through 2006-07. The problems of the farmers were quite comprehensive. There was little credit available. What was available was very costly. There was no advise on how best to conduct agriculture operations. Income through farming was not enough to meet even the minimum needs of a farming family. Support systems like free health facilities from the government were virtually non-existent. Traditionally support systems in the villages of India had been provided by the government. However, due to a variety of reasons the government had either withdrawn itself from its supportive role or plain simple misgovernance had allowed facilities in the villages to wither away. [ M Rajivlochan (2007) "Farmers and firefighters" in Indian Express, August 28, 2007, [http://www.indianexpress.com/story/213066.html] ]

Agriculture is the mainstay of the state of Maharashtra. It is the main occupation of the people. Both food crops and cash crops are grown in the state. The main food crops of Maharashtra are mangoes, grapes, bananas, oranges, wheat, rice, jowar, bajra, and pulses. Cash crops include groundnut, cotton, sugarcane, turmeric, and tobacco.

The total irrigated area which has been used for crop cultivation is 33, 500 square kilometers. Large areas of the state have been brought under fruit cultivation. The fruits which have added to the treasury of the state are the Nagpur oranges, oranges of Bathplug, the Alphonso Mangoes and the grapes of Nashik.

The agricultural growth rate has increased to 1.97%. To make things more accessible for the farmers the interest rate for the loans has been decreased to 6%. A very important problem is the dependence on rainfall. To lessen the dependence irrigation facilities have been extended to an additional area of 1.4 lakh hectares. To provide relief to stressed farmers who have been affected by the drought conditions, Rs.5200 crore has been sanctioned by the central government. This has been done to six districts of the Vidharba region. To compensate the crop losses Rs367 crore has been granted to the poor farmers. Apart from that stringent actions have been taken on 2821 illegal money lenders.

Research on agriculture and agricultural products needs to be conducted to tackle the diverse agro – climatic differences. Apart from that the transport and communication services, infrastructure development in the rural area has helped in developing the agricultural production of the state.

Causes

*absence of adequate social support infrastructure at the level of the village and district
*uncertainty of agricultural enterprise in India
*indebtedness of farmers
*rising costs of cultivation
*plummeting prices of farm commodities
*lack of credit availability for small farmers
*relative absence of irrigation facilities
*repeated crop failures

Remedies

*government to actually implement the various money-lending Acts that already exist to prevent the alienation of the farmers land-holding
*to make the crop Insurance Scheme more farmer friendly, with lower premia and less red-tape
*renewal of the land’s biodiversity to ensure the health of land and enable the farmer to cope with market ups and downs
*better health facilities in the locality since expenditure on health has been one of the most important financial drain in the village
*better education facilities at school level in the villages to enable better coping with a more technologically oriented agriculture
*quality checks on agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to prevent cheating of the farmer by unscruplous suppliers of industrial inputs for agriculture
*reliable agricultural advisories for farmers on farm related practises
*better access to markets for agricultural produce to get higher rates for farm produce

Current situation

Currently Vidarbha was in the media for a spate of farmer suicides in recent years ostensibly because of the falling Minimum Support Price for cotton. The problem is complex and root causes include lopsided policies of the World Trade Organisation and developed nations' subsidies to their cotton farmers which make Vidarbha's cotton uncompetitive in world markets. Consequently Vidarbha is plagued by high rates of school drop outs, penniless widows left in the wake of suicides, loan sharks and exploitation of the vulnerable groups.

The Indian government had promised to increase the minimum rate for cotton by approximately Rs 100 ($2) but reneged on its promise by reducing the Minimum Support Price further. This resulted in more suicides as farmers were ashamed to default on debt payments to loan sharks. "In 2006, 1,044 suicides were reported in Vidarbha alone - that's one suicide every eight hours." [ [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/vidarbha/index.html "The Dying Fields"] . "Wide Angle" (TV series). PBS. 2007.]

In April 2007 an NGO named [http://greenearthconsulting.org Green Earth Social Development Consulting] brought out a [http://greenearthconsulting.org/Articles/GreenEarth%20report%20on%20Impact%20of%20Relief%20Packages%20on%20farmers%20suicides%20in%20Vidarbha.pdf report] after doing an audit of the state and central government relief packages in Vidarbha. The report's conclusions were:
*Farmers' demands were not taken into count while preparing the relief package. Neither were civil society organisations, local government bodies, panchayats etc consulted.
*The relief packages were mostly amalgamations of exiting schemes. Apart from the farmer helpline and the direct financial assistance, there was scarcely anythign new being offered. Pumping extra funds into additional schemes shows that no new idea was applied to solve a situation where existing measures had obviously failed.
*The farmer helpline did not give any substantial help to farmers
*The basis for selection of beneficiaries under the assistance scheme was not well-defined. Also, type of assistance to be given led to problems like a farmer needing a pair of bullocks getting a pump set and vice versa (or a farmer who has no access to water sources being given pump sets)
*Awareness regarding the package was also pretty low.

The report concluded quite alarmingly that the loan burden of the farmers will double in 2008

References