FARMERS SUICIDE IN INDIA IS ON THE RISE.

The big irony, where the Indian peasantry, the world largest body of surviving small farmers in the world, today faces a crisis of extinction. The suicide rate of farmers throughout the world is higher than for the non-farming population. All over the world the impact of an industrial approach to boosting crop yields has stripped many small farmers of their self-sufficiency and thrown them into despair. Since the 1990s, farmer suicides in India have made headlines. 66% of rural labourers in India are dependent on agricultural activity for their income. 1997 witnessed the first emergence of farmer suicides in India. Every 32 minutes, a farmer committed suicide in India between 1997 and 2005. Rapid increase in indebtedness was at the root of farmers taking their lives. The rising costs of production and falling prices of farm commodities, with limited resources and paucity of funds, farmers here had to depend on the borrowed capital to farm their lands. This in turn has pushed them into the state of indebtedness from which it is nearly impossible to come up and thus became a major contributing factor for committing suicides. INDIAN FARMER CRISIS: Exacerbated by two year drought in 1965 and 66, the Indian government turned to high yielding, genetically modified seed provided by foreign sources. These seeds, coupled with the Indian governments assistance, sparked the green Revolution in India. 15 years of economic reforms have given farmers access to promising technology but opened Indian farmers to global competition. For farmers in India, foreign subsidies have driven down the price of crops in global market. Although these farming methods worked for several years but soon they began to show adverse effects in late 1980s. Cotton farmers, particularly within the regions of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka were hardest hit by global competition and poor yield. The cotton belt is where the suicides are taking place on a very large scale. It is the suicide belt of India, said Vandana Shiva. A crop failure, excess stock, indebtedness became perilous to the livelihood of these farmers. Another disturbing trend has been observed where the farmers commit suicide to avail relief benefits announced by the government to support the families. Such situation has particularly seen in parts of Andhra Pradesh. Suicide has spread like an epidemic among the distraught peasants. Many of them committed suicide by drinking the very pesticides that no longer work on their crops.

STATISTICS: 1. More than 100000 farmers have taken their lives since 1997. 2. 86.5% farmers who took their own lives were financially indebted. 3. Average debt was $835. 4. On an average, there has been 1 farmers suicide every 32 minute since 2002. WHY ARE FARMER SUICIDE RATES SO HIGH? : To sum up the factors mainly responsible for provoking the farmers to kill themselves can be as follows1. Financial stress- constant financial pressure, debt hassles, absence of institutional finance add to the economic problems. 2. Loss of independence and control- many of the issues are not within their control such as weather conditions, government policies, etc. 3. Geographical remoteness 4. Loss of crops, loss of land and income. 5. Adverse effects of Liberalisation and Green Revolution. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO PREVENT THIS SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS? : As per my opinion, here cannot be one single solution to end the woes of farmers. Giving monetary relief is not an effective solution. The solutions should aim at the entire structure of agriculture as it is in the agricultural sector that the battle for long term economic development will be won or lost. Dependency of agriculture on nature should be reduced. Prevention of crop failure should be the primary aim of the government. Making finance available to every farmer. Farmers need to be guided on economical methods of cultivation and encouraged to have a professional approach towards agricultures rather than traditional. General public, NGOs and other organisations too can play a part in helping farmers as social support provides a buffering effect for stress We have to take pro-active solutions and realize that farmers suicides are not minor issues happening in the remote parts of few states, it is a reflection of true state of our economy. "Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day but teach him how to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life", so goes the popular saying, the case of our Indian farmers is similar to this, what they need is a means to sustain throughout their lives. If India has to shine, it is these farmers that need to be empowered. UMANG GUPTA