Why Farmers Sucide reasons
Answers
he surge in input costs: A major cause of the farmers’ suicides in India has been the increasing burden on the farmers due to inflated prices of agricultural inputs. The culmination of these factors is seen in the overall increase in the cost of cultivation, for wheat, the cost at present is three times than it was in 2005.
Cost of chemicals and seeds: Be it the fertilisers, crop protection chemicals or even the seeds for cultivation, farming has become expensive for the already indebted farmers.
Costs of Agricultural equipment: The input costs, moreover, aren’t limited to the basic raw materials. Using agricultural equipment and machinery like tractors, submersible pumps etc adds to the already surging costs. Besides, these secondary inputs have themselves become less affordable for the small and marginal farmers.
Labour costs: Likewise, hiring labourers and animals is getting costlier too. While this may reflect an improvement in the socio-economic status of the labourers, driven primarily by MGNERGA and hike in minimum basic income, this has not gone too well with boosting the agriculture sector.
Various reasons have been offered to explain why farmers commit suicide in India, including: floods, drought, debt, use of genetically modified seed, public health, use of lower quantity pesticides due to less investments producing a decreased yield. There is no consensus[36][37][38] on what the main causes might be but studies show suicide victims are motivated by more than one cause, on average three or more causes for committing suicide, the primer reasons being the inability to repay loans.[39] Panagariya, an economist at the World bank states, "farm-related reasons get cited only approximately 25 percent of the time as reasons for suicide" and "studies do consistently show greater debt burden and greater reliance on informal sources of credit" amongst farmers who commit suicide.[39]
