Farmers' suicides in India are a pressing issue, accounting for 11.2% of all suicides, with root causes including high debt burdens, poor agricultural practices, and ineffective government schemes. The document highlights the need for improved crop insurance, better irrigation management, and alternative income sources for farmers. It argues that government responses have often been inadequate, requiring urgent policy reform and support for small farmers.

1. FARMERS’ SUICIDE

2. In winter’s chill or summer’s heat
Farmers work so the world can eat.
BUT IN RETURN.......

3. INTRODUCTION India is an agrarian country with around 48.9% of its
people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture.
 Nowadays the problem of farmers’ suicide is one of the
concerns that needs to be addressed by the Government.
 Farmers include those who work on fields as well as
those who employ workers for field work or farming
activities; it excludes agricultural laborers.
 Farmers’ suicide account for 11.2% of all suicides in India
. Activists and scholars have offered a number of
conflicting reasons for farmer suicides, such as monsoon
failure, high debt burdens, government policies, public
mental health, personal issues and family problems.

4.  For over a decade, farmer suicides in India has been
a serious public policy concern. More recently this
has led to a shrill media outcry and much
politicking.
 The government response to the farmers’ suicide has
mostly been simplistic and sometimes aggravating.
Both state and central governments initially tried to
sweep the crisis under the carpet, soon it blew up
into huge proportions forcing most commentators to
see it as a repercussion of the neo liberal policies
pursued by the successive governments since
1991.The main proportion of government’s outlay
goes towards subsidies which contribute very little
to the growth today.

5. CAUSESAgriculture is the unorganized activity today:
Indian agriculture is largely an unorganized sector. No
systematic institutional and organizational planning is
involved in cultivation, irrigation, harvesting, etc.
Institutional finances are not adequately available and
minimum purchase prize fixed by the government does not
reach the poor and resource less farmer.
Middlemen and economic exploitation of farmers:
Exploitation by the middlemen is the reason put forth for
not getting the best price for the produce of the
agriculturists. The governments should promote the plan
called “Ulavar Santhai”(Farmers’ market), where the
farmers can directly sell their products at reasonable price
to the consumers

6. Most farms are small and economically
unfeasible:
The ground reality is that majority of the farmers
in India own as little as two acres of land.
Cultivation on such small area is not economically
feasible. Such small farms have become helpless
and vulnerable. In many cases, the farmers are not
even the owners of the land, which makes
profitable cultivation impossible because significant
portion of earnings go towards the payment of lease
for the land.

7. Government schemes do not reach small
farmers
Government has implemented agricultural debt
relief scheme in 2008 to benefit over 36 million
farmers. Direct agricultural loan to stressed
farmers under so called “Kisaan credit card”
were also covered under this scheme. However
most of the subsidies and welfare schemes
announced by the central and state government
do not reach farmers.

8. High indebtedness and exorbitant interest
rates
The root cause of farmers taking their lives is the
increase in their indebtedness and debt burden.
Exorbitant interest rates have to be declared illegal
and the government has to take strict measures
against greedy money lenders. Easy access to
institutional credits have to reach the small and
marginal farmers , without cumbersome
procedures.

9. Real estate mafia
We can see that even fertile land for agricultural
purposes is being sold to real estate people ,who
prepare plots and give attractive advertisements
to sell them at exorbitant prices. There is need to
implement strict measures to prevent land
grabbing.

10. % SHARE OF MAJOR CAUSES OF FARMERS’
SUICIDE

11. THE INDIAN OVERVIEW

12. STATES WITH FEWEST CASES OF FARMERS’
SUICIDE

13. What can be done…?
 Why suicide?
Because of financial problems.
 Why financial problems?
Because of loss of crops.
 Why loss of crops?
Because of floods, unpredictable monsoons,
droughts.

14. Now what can we do to mitigate the impacts
of floods, erratic monsoons and droughts?
Canals! Build canals to reach deep into villages
to most of the farms. Connect the rivers to
minimize chances of floods as well as droughts.
Utilize the land for producing mixed crops so
that not all crops get damaged at once. This will
take time, especially when we have pro-poor
opposition parties that poison the mind of the
people against any development scheme that
requires the government attention.

15. NEED FOR MEANINGFUL CROP INSURANCE
POLICIES:
Crop insurance is must and the claim should be settled
easily under the supervision of distinct collectors.
Index based insurance has the advantage that it is
transparent and all the insurers within a defined
geographical area are treated equally. It has low
operational and transnational costs, while also
ensuring quick payouts.

16. NEED FOR THE NATIONAL WEATHER RISK MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM/DISEASE ALERT SYSTEM:
Facilitating national weather risk management system
that alerts farmers when there is a danger of extreme
weather , would go a long way in reducing losses in
agriculture.
Value added services like pest and disease alert
applications in combination with the weather forecast
would equip the farmers to handle and manage their
crops better.

17. NEED FOR BETTER WATER MANAGEMENT:
Irrigation facilities that are currently available do
not cover the entire cultivable land .Apart from the
areas where perennial rivers flow , most of the
agricultural fields do not have irrigation facilities.
Connecting the rivers throughout the country will
solve the problem. Construction of national
waterways will improve the irrigation facility ,
which in turn can save the farmers if the monsoon
will fail.
ALTERNATE SOURCE OF INCOME FOR FARMERS:
Small farmers should be encouraged to develop
alternative sources of income and the government
should take up the responsibility for providing
training to the farmers to acquire new skills.

18. Our Farmers deserve praise, not
condemnation; and their efficiency should
be cause for gratitude, not something for
which they are penalized.

19. REFERENCES:
•www.newsgram.com
•www.youarticlelibrary.com
•www.countercurrents.org
•www.quora.com
•www.wikipedia.org

20. •Yashna Jawrani 16BIT0100
•Peeyush Goel 16BIT0135
•Chamala Ravi Chandrika 16BIT0136
•Pranshu Sharma 16BIT0157
•Bhagyashree Bagwe 16BIT0204
•Ankit Gupta 16BIT0205
•Sonal Bihani 16BIT0256
•Nikhil Kumar 16BIT0358