The document summarizes the dimensions of the agrarian crisis and underlying policies in India. It notes that farmers are trapped in unsustainable, high-risk agriculture with increasing costs and unremunerative prices. This is due to policies that promote high-external input agriculture favoring large farms over smallholders. As a result, many farmers are in debt, incomes are decreasing, and over 284,000 farmers have committed suicide in the past 18 years. The document calls for a shift in policy focus to prioritizing the incomes and livelihoods of small farmers for sustainable agriculture and rural development.

1. Dimensions of Agrarian
Crisis and Underlying
Policies
Dr. G. V. Ramanjaneyulu
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
National Workshop on
Rethinking Economic Policies for Income Security in Agriculture

2. The Crisis
• Increasing Costs of Cultivation
• Trapped in high-risk high-input agriculture
• Unremunerative Prices; Devaluing of agricultural produce
• Disparity and neglect of rainfed areas and dryland crops
• Ecologically unsustainable models
• Lack of holding capacity among small farmers
• Processing and marketing not in farmers’ hands
• Decrease in public investments; skewed subsidies
• Increasing Living Costs

3. Wrong framework
• Our models of agriculture and support systems are
not based on our situations and needs
• Green Revolution was technology and productivity
centric
• From 90s we have become technology and market
centric
• Both never cared for the externalities

4. Agrarian Crisis
Farmer
Policies Markets
• Small holdings
• Lack of bargaining power
• Increased tenancy
• Lack of knowledge and skills
• Low investments in
agril
• Against small
holders
• Support high extrnl
input agril
• Monocultured
and monopolised
markets
• More cost
addition than
value addition

5. Dimensions of Crisis
• Agriculture Crisis: Neglect of agriculture, unsustainable
models
• Resource depletion
• Increasing chemicalisation
• Monoculture
• Increasing risks of failure
• Lack investments
• Agrarian Crisis: Threatening livelihoods of small and
marginal farmers
• Decreasing incomes
• Lack of support systems

6. People depending on Agriculture in
India
69.9
99.6
78.2 92.5
110.7
127.31 118.7
27.3
31.5
47.5 55.5
74.6
106.1
144.3
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011
Indian Census 1951-2011
Cultivators Agriculture labour
49.93%
19.5%
52.78%
16.69%
43.35%
26.33%
37.82%
22.69%
35.24%
23.75%
31.65%
26.38%
24.64%
29.96%
69.43%
69.47% 69.68%
60.51%
58.99%
58.03%
54.6%
• People depending on agriculture has come down from 69.43% to 54.6% in last 60yrs
• For the first time the number of cultivators is lower than agriculture workers both in proportion and absolute
numbers
• Between 2001-2011 about 86.10 lakh people have left farming in India which is about 2358/day
• In 2011 main cultivators (depending on farm income for more than 6 months) are only 95.8 m which is about
8% of Indian population)
(People in Million) (% of workers)
Source: Census of India 1951-2011 http://www.agrariancrisis.in

7. Where are they going?
• From 2004-05 to 2009-10, only 2 million additional employment
was generated but 55 million were added to working age
population!
• 25.1 million people lost their self-employment
• Increase in the number of casual workers by 21.9 million, while
growth in the number of regular workers nearly halved between
2004-05 and 2009-10, compared with the previous 5 year period.
Sector 2004-05 2009-10 Difference
Agriculture 258.93 243.21 -15.71
Manufacturing 55.77 48.54 -7.23
Services 112.81 112.33 -0.48
Non-Manufacturing
(construction)
29.96 56.10 26.14
TOTAL 457.46 460.18 2.72
Sector-wise employment (millions)

8. 0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Farmers suicides in India
No. of suicides
Source: NCRB 1995-2012
Total 2,84,694 in 18 years
http://www.agrariancrisis.in

9. Farmers Suicides in India, 2012
Four major cotton growing states form 68% of the suicides
AP and Maharashtra form 46 %
Source: NCRB 1995-2012, http://www.ncrb.nic.in
Total 13754
http://www.agrariancrisis.in

10. The table only includes States whose annual averages have risen or fallen by over 100 farm
farm suicides between the to periods. It also treats Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as one
unit for data purposes.
Source: NCRB Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India Reports 1995-2012
Average
(2004-12)
Average
(1995-03)
Differe
nce
Andhra Pradesh 2376 1613 763
Assam 310 159 152
Jharkand 109 8 101
Madhya Pradesh+Chhattisgarh* 2513 2327 186
Maharashtra 3745 2656 1089
*MP state was formed in 2001
Increasing crisis

11. Crop A2+FL/ha C2/ha A2+FL/q C2/q C3/q Yield
q/ha
Implicit
price/q
MSP/q
Paddy 35104.50 54202.54 603.62 932.35 1033.43 54.69 1122.25 1050
Cotton 27204.15 42919.35 1525.73 2405.53 2547.15 17.53 2905.54 3000
Jower 16012.21 23757.04 1000.62 1429.67 1572.64 14.17 1452.57 540
Maize 26735.73 35564.55 576.95 531.69 917.69 44.25 547.34 540
Redgram 16519.59 30960.04 1674.31 3149.79 3465.00 9.50 4316.33 2300
Moong 7351.55 12624.29 2340.03 4013.55 4414.92 3.14 5103.19 2750
Blackgram 14304.52 25555.33 1615.53 2554.59 3207.54 5.54 4422.75 2520
Groundnut 24771.12 35699.44 1765.24 2537.04 2791.30 13.27 2312.25 2100
Cost estimations for 2009-10

12. Focus on Farm Incomes &
Sustainability
• Make incomes of small farmers the focus of Agriculture policy;
Sustaining small farmers not pushing them out of agriculture
• Economical and Ecological Sustainability
Why?
• Foundation of Rural economy; Livelihood of 60% of our citizens;
Required to ensure nation’s Food Security
• Production-focused support policy of 1960’s has broken down
• Growth models in other countries show: unless the model has focus
on farm incomes, growth is not poverty-reducing.