Question

Case studies on farmers suicide in india

Answer 1

A common problem faced in agriculture all over India is farmer suicides. The tally of farmer suicides in India has spiked since 1995. The reason these numbers continue to grow is because of the complete negligence by the government.

Farmer suicides take place mainly in Vidharbha, Maharashtra. This problem started in the mid 20th century and continues till date. Farmers in Vidharbha who cultivate the cotton crop face this problem. There have been more than 250,000-suicide cases in India and that unfortunate tally only grows. Suicides are mainly caused by major debt faced by farmers. When farmers are in debt they are forced to borrow money from local moneylenders, however the moneylenders demand huge sums of repayment and this puts the farmers in further debt.

This debt is also caused because of the government. Earlier farmers used to grow crops that could be consumed and sold locally with the help of natural fertilizers and pesticides; they would then save the seeds for the next year of cultivation. However in the 1970s the government encouraged the use of Hybrid or Genetically engineered cotton seeds with the promise of better yield and a stronger disease resistance but these seeds required more careful management with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Unlike their usual method of farming these seeds could only be used once and they could not collect for the next season so they were forced to buy more every year along with more fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation tubes. For the supply of these items the farmers needed to take loans which they could not repay, this again landed them up in debts. Due to farmers allowing multinational companies with Hybrid Seeds such as MONSANTO the cost of cultivation increased but the price of the cotton plummeted, because of this farmers didn’t receive sufficient amounts of money to support their families and repay debts, this lead to major distress in farmers, which eventually resulted in suicide.

To counter this problem drastic steps have to be taken up especially by the government. The government needs to provide more subsidies for farmers. The current subsidies can hardly cover the debts that farmers face. Officials and politicians must stop siphoning large sums of money from the subsidies. Many farmers receive little or no subsidies at all because of corrupt officials. The selling rate of cotton must increase if the suicides are to decrease. Several farmers state that the reason people in their community take their lives is because of the low selling rate. The government must be more willing to address this issue if suicides are to stop.

The government policies majorly affect agriculture in India, however mostly negatively. The government has forced the use of Hybrid seeds instead of the regular, cheaper and more efficient natural seeds. The subsidy policy for farmers by the government has helped but it isn’t reliable as corrupt officials siphon huge sums of money from the subsidies provided to farmers. Other countries are far more successful in agriculture as their populations are much smaller and the subsidies greater, however in India the population only increases but the subsidies are not constant and are being robbed by politicians. The government is also demanding too much repayment from farmer after providing loans.

If the issue of Farmer Suicides is addressed properly by the government the farmer death rates will reduce and may even stop.