We can stop farmers’ suicides!

Dr Ashwani Mahajan
Recently a minister stunned the nation, when he openly stated that Maharashtra government has no solution to the problem of farmers’ suicides. It is well known that in the last nearly more than a decade, Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has emerged as a capital of farmers’ suicides. Now this menace has spread to other parts of the country, including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and many more states. Though government records say that 3 lakh farmers have committed suicides, unofficial figures suggest that more than 10 lakh farmers have committed suicides so far.
Lack of alternative employment opportunities
India is still predominantly an agricultural economy. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, government of India, 55 percent of India’s working population in still dependent on agriculture.  There is no sufficient reduction in number of people engaged in agriculture, though proportion of working population engaged in agriculture has come down from 70 percent at the time of independence to 55 percent now. However, it is disgusting to note that agriculture which provided 56.5 percent of GDP in 1950-51, now provides hardly 14 percent of GDP. This implicitly implies that rest 45 percent population engaged in non-agriculture occupations takes away 86 percent of GDP. This fact demonstrates ill-fate of people engaged in agriculture. There is a general belief that rate of increase in productivity in non-agriculture occupations is much faster as compared to agriculture; therefore we can increase overall per worker productivity by taking people away from agriculture and engaging them in non agricultural occupations.
However we find that even after nearly 68 years of independence, we have failed to generate enough employment opportunities in industrial and service sectors. In absence of alternative employment opportunities, farming community continue to engage in agriculture, despite low productivity.
Farmers’ Suicides in Vidarbha
According to a rough estimate, on an average 3 farmers commit suicide daily. Government of Maharashtra had constituted a number of committees and commissions to study the problem. Many research and academic institutions have also tried to look into the problem. Most of these studies have concluded that major cause of farmers’ suicides is the indebtedness of the farmers. According to the report of 59th Round of NSSO, major reason for farmers’ indebtedness is the loans taken for agricultural purposes. Basic question is that when in the past, farmers were not committing suicides, then why now farmers’ suicides have taken the form of an epidemic. If may be noted that incidence of farmers’ suicide is found more amongst cotton farmers. It is notable that land of Vidarbha in most suited for cotton farming. In the past Vidarbha farmers used to grow food grain for their consumption and for supplementing their incomes they used to grow cotton. A farmer could buy 12 gram gold by selling one quintal cotton then. Now Vidarbha farmers mostly grow cotton and price of cotton has nearly stagnated, whereas cost of seeds. fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs has increased by 4 to 6 times. International price of cotton has declined from 1.1 US $ in 1994 to only 50 cents per pound now. Therefore farmers are not able to fetch remunerative price for cotton. Farmers could fetch a price of 3600 to 3900 per quintal in the last season. Therefore we find that declining international price of cotton on the one hand and increasing cost of cultivation on the other make agriculture unprofitable business.
Multinational corporations, guided by pure profit motive, also add to the miseries of the farmers, as they misguide farmers about the adoption of seeds and other agriculture inputs. It is notable that Bt Cotton seeds sold by MNCs, costs these companies only rupees 20 per packet, which they sell between rupees 900 and 1000 per packet. For maximizing their sales and profits, they not even tell farmers that this variety is not suitable for un-irrigated areas. As a result, crop fails in case of failure of rains, despite making all efforts involving huge cost to the farmers and indebted farmer is not left with any option, except to commit suicide.
Farmers not getting remunerative price
It is an open secret that farmers in India do not get remunerative price for their produce. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in its election manifesto had promised that farmers would be provided with remunerative pries by adding 50 per cent to the cost of cultivation. However, that election promise perhaps got reduced to merely an election slogan. Though, there has been marginal increase in the price of vegetables, fruits and some other agricultural produce, and therefore farmers’ incomes did increase marginally; however, this hike is not evenly distributed.
Farmers own efforts
To supplement their incomes farmers go for horticulture and animal husbandry also. In the past 2 decades farmers in different parts of the country, especially western states (Maharashtra, Gujarat etc.) have made significant strides in animal husbandry and today milk and milk produce add more than 4 lakh crores of rupees to GDP and milk production in the country is more than any agriculture produce.
Yes we can stop suicides!
If policy makers come out of the psyche of helplessness, we can definitely stop farmers suicides. Farmer is Annadata (provider of food). To provide remunerative price for farmers’ produce, is government’s responsibility. We must ensure reasonable income for the farmer. Farmers should be provided with remunerative prices by adding 50 percent to cost of cultivation. Wherever essential, effective ban on imports of agricultural produce should also be imposed, to stop sharp reduction in prices of agricultural produce. To provide alternative source of employment opportunities, we need to encourage village industries, including agro based food processing industries, horticulture and animal husbandry. We need to raise incomes of the farmers to eliminate dependence on borrowing. If government does not take steps in right direction, it will remain in the helplessness mode!
(The author is Associate professor PGDAV College, University of Delhi)

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