Farmer suicides in India have reached alarming levels, with around 300,000 reported over the last two decades, primarily due to debt, family issues, and losses from natural calamities. Many farmers face increasing input costs, inadequate irrigation facilities, and low product prices, leading to a sense of hopelessness. The government is urged to implement measures such as better irrigation, crop insurance, and modern farming techniques to alleviate this crisis.

1. Farmers Suicide
in India

3. INTRODUCTION
“A Farmer is a magician who produces money from mud”
India is an agrarian country with around 70% of its people depending
directly or indirectly upon agriculture. Farmers are an important part of
our country. After all, India is an agricultural country. We depend highly
on our farmers. However, unfortunately, the case is that farmer suicides
are a common issue in our country. India has witnessed around
300,000 farmer-suicides over the past two decades.
The government of India needs to take measures to prevent this issue.
We need to save our farmers from this misery as they are the ones who
feed us..

4. Reasons for farmer suicide
•Debt & Family problems:-
1] Debt to stress and family responsibilities were rated as
significantly higher than fertilizers and crop failure.
2] Alcohols addiction is also one of the reason.
•Losses due to natural calamities:-
The UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, say
more than 22 per cent of the damages caused by natural
hazards—such as drought, floods, storms or tsunamis—are
accounted for by the agriculture sector.

5. •Increased input cost:-
Rising input costs, lack of remunerative prices both at the
government procurement level and private sector purchases and
lack of extension services are the reasons behind an increase in
incidents of farmers' suicides in many states.

6. Problems faced by farmers
Some Facts-1
o2 lacs suicides in past 10 years
o40 % farmers are in debt
oCost of inputs increasing faster than price of produce
oDroughts ( almost 40 % area affected ) & Floods every 5 years
oNot able to provide crop insurance for more than 10 % of
crops in past 20 years
o40 % of farmers want to give up agriculture
Some Facts-2
oMore than 60 % area is dependent on rain only
oSome of the irrigation projects not completed for past 20 years
oAverage net profit on 1 acre of land growing cereals is about Rs 5,000
oJust growing cereals & pulses does not give even rs 3000/- pm
on a farm of 5 acres
oSome crops give even Rs 1000 per acre

7. Major Problems
 No focus on rainfed agriculture
 Spurious seeds
 Non availability of seeds – variety, quantity, quality & in time
 Spurious fertilisers & pesticides
 Middlemen harassing farmers
 MSP not commensurate with input costs

8. LACK OF PROPER IRRIGATION
• Farmers in India are using traditional methods for
irrigation, which consumes more water than actually
requirements and farmers don’t get water for irrigation as
per their requirements in off rain seasons & in droughts.
• Indian Farmers are heavily dependent on
monsoons. They don’t have proper irrigation
facilities. 58% of farmers having committed
suicides had absolutely no irrigation facilities.

9. Due to failure of water management heavy
rainfall area and drought prone area also
face problems of irrigation.
Methods like Drip irrigation must be used to
overcome on saving & fulfillment of
required water for agricultural productions..
DRIP IRRIGATION
SPRINKLER IRRIGATION

10. States with high Farmer Suicide
• According to report by the National Crime Records Bureau,
the states with the highest incidence of farmer suicide were
Maharashtra (3030),Telangana(1197),Madhya Pradesh(58).
• More than 23,000 farmers have committed suicide in the
state of Maharashtra between 2009 and 2016.

11. Tamma Carleton,a researcher at the
university of California at
Berkley,compared suicide and climate
data, concluding that climate change in
India may have a
“Strong influence “on suicides during
the growing season ,triggering more
than 59,000 suicides in 30 years .

12. Why should we talk about famers suicides
 Famers are the backbone of the Indian economy , but
most of the time they’re neglected.
 Famers provide principal means of livelihood for over
60% of India’s population.
 Decrease in the share of agriculture sector in G.D.P. of
India. Almost 75% of farmer suicides has occurred
amongst the small & medium farmers.
 At least 10,281 persons involved in the farm sector
ended their lives in 2019.And around 3,927 farmers
committed suicides in 2020.
 Indebtedness was the reason behind the suicide of 93%
famers. The policy of trade liberalization & globalization
is rooted for rise price and input cost.

13. Common features in majority of
suicides are:
 91-94% 0f suicides are by family heads.
 91-97% of those who committed suicides are males.
 84-89% of are married & 86.5% are those who were financially indebted.
 The expressed reasons in order of importance behind farmer suicides were- debt,
low product prices, stress, family responsibilities, poor irrigation, private money
lenders, crop failure& increased cost of cultivation.
 The impact of suicides leads to child labor, detoriation of physical health and widows
burdened with new responsibility.
 The number of deaths of farmers in every start is increasing and its shameful incident
needs immediate government action. The agricultural sector should be valued more
than before to stop this
“FARMER’S SHOULD FEEL PROUD TO BE FARMER NOT BURDEN”

14. WHAT CAN GOVERNMENT DO TO HELP THE FARMERS?
Educating
Farmers
Loans
Insurance
Schemes

15. Irrigation Facilities
Schemes
Others
o Grant on Farm Products.
o Long Chain Between Farmers and
Consumers.

16. How to control farmers suicide…
• Farmer’s suicides can be prevented by collective effort. The
government must teach modern techniques to farmers.
Furthermore, they must be given proper irrigation facilities.
• It should also launch genuine crop insurance policies to
cover their losses.
• Moreover, the government must also ensure they learn
new skills which will help them get some additional income
into the family. This way, they won’t be solely dependent
on their crops and will have a backup with them.
•