Farmer Suicides- Beyond the Politics

“Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.”

Daniel Webster

Unfortunately for India of twenty first century these founders of civilization have become just a big vote bank.People who’s lives are not considered to be as important as the rest of the citizens.Every half hour one farmer in india commits suicide.The man who toils all his life is not even entitled to  get two square meals a day for himself and his family.

Farming is not a profitable business,the money which is spent in fertilizers,irrigation and cultivation is far more than the expected yield of the harvest.In india it is even more expensive, as the average land holdings are very small that is less than two hectares. , India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fisheries accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2009, about 50% of the total workforce

In 2014, the National Crime Records Bureau of India reported 5,650 farmer suicides.The highest number of farmer suicides were recorded in 2004 when 18,241 farmers committed suicide. The farmers suicide rate in India has ranged between 1.4 and 1.8 per 100,000 total population, over a 10-year period through 2005.There are accusations of states manipulating the data on farmer suicides.

India is an agrarian country with around 70% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. Farmer suicides 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.

Apply the new Census totals to the suicide data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the results are grim. Sample: A farmer in Andhra Pradesh is three times more likely to commit suicide than anyone else in the country, excluding farmers. And twice as likely to do so when compared to non-farmers in his own State. The odds are not much better in Maharashtra, which remained the worst State for such suicides across a decade.

According to a report by the National Crime Records Bureau, the states with the highest incidence of farmer suicide in 2015 were Maharashtra (3,030), Telangana (1,358), Karnataka (1,197), Madhya Pradesh (581), Andhra Pradesh (516), and Chhattisgarh (854).

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[32][33][34] 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.[35] Panagariya 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

At least 270,940 Indian farmers have taken their lives since 1995, NCRB records show. This occurred at an annual average of 14,462 in six years, from 1995 to 2000. And at a yearly average of 16,743 in 11 years between 2001 and 2011. That is around 46 farmers’ suicides each day, on average. Or nearly one every half-hour since 2001.the actual number is likely to be higher because of deficiencies in reporting suicides. Four states account for about two-thirds of these suicides:

In developed countries such as USA, Canada  and Japan the subsidy for farmers is very high. That’s the reason farmers still flourish in such countries. The truth is farming will always need subsidy.

	Per Farmer	Per hectare
canada	9000	52
japan	26000	11792
USA	21000	129
India	66	53

 (in terms of Dollars)

Two thirds of suicides have been reported in the 4 cotton growing states.

The major reason behind it that Bt Cotton produced by monasetto has been banned in many European countries but India has taken no note whatsoever of the fact that Bt Cotton is harming the environment and also the farmers are paying a very heavy price because of depending on Bt Cotton.

Reasons for farmers suicides.¶ (in 2002)	Percent (of suicides)
Failure of crops	16.84
Other reasons (e.g. chit fund)	15.04
Family problems with spouse, others	13.27
Chronic illness	9.73
Marriage of daughters	5.31
Political affiliation	4.42
Property disputes	2.65
Debt burden	2.65
Price crash	2.65
Borrowing too much (e.g. for house construction)	2.65
Losses in non-farm activities	1.77
Failure of bore well	0.88
¶Note: "Reasons given by close relatives and friends. Every case cited more than one reason."

Bt Cotton needs a lot of fertilizers and insecticides ,which causes a heavy financial burden on the farmer .This type of cotton has very harmful effect on the environment.This also has a property of hybrid break down,which means that every time the farmer has to buy fresh seeds from the market and the seeds from the previous harvest will not be fertile.

Using so many pesticides means that the farmer is compromising with his as well as the health of his family.The farmers many a times take loans from loan sharks for various reasons such as sowing their fields,fertilizers,insecticides,health reasons,marriages etc and when the crop fails or the government fails to compensate them timely are left with no choice but kill themselves.

It is not a problem which cannot be solved, but political parties doing vote bank politics seldom care about the solutions or real reasons behind farmer suicides.