Answer the following question in about 100-150 words.
(a) You must have seen some news that Indian farmers commit suicide and live their lives
under poverty line. They are doomed to live a life of obscurity. Make a list of problems
and causes of those problems faced by the farmers. Discuss ways to eliminate their problems
and what role should government play to support farmers.
Answers
Explanation:
Agriculture is the process of utilizing the land for growing different varieties of crops. Though farmers feed the nation, their conditions are far from satisfactory. The agrarian crisis has been one of the worst disasters to have hit our country in the last couple of decades. There are a lot of reasons as to why farmer suicides happen in our country. Many social, economic, political, and individual crises have forced them to end their lives. As a known fact, agriculture in India is referred to as “ gamble of the monsoon”, which means its too much dependent on nature so whenever there is a failure of monsoons, there is a failure of crops even irrigation facilities are not so developed in India and because of this, they have to take heavy loans for growing crops and later they kill themselves due to their inability to repay loans mostly taken from landlords and banks. Also, family pressure is too high for farmers, they fail to make ends meet and thus commit suicide because of this failure. When a farmer commits suicide, compensation is facilitated by the farmer’s family. However, when female farmers commit suicide they are not compensated as they are not recognized as ‘ Farmer’.
The suicide of farmers which are complex and manifold are caused by various reasons which can be traced back to economic and policy changes during the 1990s.
Causes of farmer’s suicide
Indebtedness
Crop failure
Inability to sell the crops grown
Disappointing realization of prices
Family problems
Sense of loss and depression
The indebtedness of farmers is one of the main reasons driving them to commit suicide. The problem starts with the availability of timely credit. The banking sector is not ready to provide credit or loan to agriculture for avoiding risk. From 1991 to 2001, the indebtedness of farmers has grown by two times. Agriculture credit became a low priority, with some committees suggesting withdrawal of credit support to farmers. Credit for housing and buying a car is available at a 9% to 11% rate of interest while the crop loans to the farmer are 17%. This shows the lack of government support for the farmers.
Farmer’s suicide statistics
According to the National Crime Records Bureau of India reported in its 2012 annual report, that 135,445 people committed suicide in India of which 13,445 were farmers. Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all suicides in India.
In India, one farmer committed suicide every 32 minutes between 1997 and 2005. Of these, 5 out of 29 states accounted for 10,486 farmers’ suicides. According to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau, the states with the highest incidence of farmer suicide in 2015 were Maharashtra (3,030), Telangana (1,358), Karnataka (1,197), Madhya Pradesh (581), Andhra Pradesh (516),