Farmers Suicide In India Archives - Lokmarg

Farmer Suicides: Rising Costs, Climate Change & Debt Burden

By Vikas Parashram Meshram 17th March 2025

Understanding farmer suicides requires a deep examination of their underlying causes, particularly in the context of Maharashtra. In 1990, The Hindu newspaper’s rural editor, P. Sainath, reported on the frequent suicides of farmers. Initially, reports of farmer suicides emerged from Maharashtra. Soon, similar incidents were reported from Andhra Pradesh. It was initially believed that most suicides were committed by cotton farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region. However, statistics from Maharashtra’s State Crime Records Bureau in 2010 revealed that the suicide rate was alarmingly high among farmers growing various cash crops across the state. The suicides were not limited to small farmers but included medium and large-scale farmers as well.

To investigate this crisis, the state government formed several inquiry committees. Then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a ₹110 billion relief package for farmers in Vidarbha. Over time, due to the agricultural crisis, farmer suicides were also reported in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. In this context, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 17,368 farmer suicides in 2009, with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh accounting for 10,765 (62%) of these cases.

In Maharashtra, between January 1 and December 31, 2024, 2,706 farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada committed suicide. This was confirmed by the state’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister, Makarand Patil, in a written response to a starred question in the Legislative Assembly. The Amaravati division recorded 1,069 suicides, while the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division saw 952 suicides, primarily due to climate change, droughts, crop failures, and debt. Of these 2,706 cases, 1,563 were deemed eligible for government aid. In 101 cases, the farmers’ families received ₹30,000 through direct financial assistance and ₹70,000 from the bank’s monthly income scheme, totaling ₹100,000 in aid.

Data from the past decade indicates that Maharashtra sees an average of 3,000 farmer suicides annually. In 2020, 2,270 farmers committed suicide. Information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the State Relief and Rehabilitation Department confirms these figures. However, while releasing these statistics, the department claimed that suicides had declined in all divisions except Nagpur and Nashik. Vidarbha remains the region most associated with farmer suicides.

Despite government compensation for bereaved families, there has been little focus on addressing the root causes of these suicides. In reality, a significant portion of Vidarbha’s population relies entirely on agriculture for survival, with no alternative livelihood options. Moreover, since 91% of agriculture in the region is rainfed, any monsoon unpredictability directly affects farmers’ livelihoods. However, the crisis in Vidarbha is not just due to monsoon dependence but also results from government policies, rising costs, and political neglect of farmers’ issues.

The lack of reliable lending institutions in Vidarbha forces many farmers to depend on private moneylenders for financial support. Additionally, the crisis is linked to erratic rainfall and the high cost of cultivating cash crops like cotton. Last year, farmers who grew Kharif crops suffered losses of up to 60%, severely impacting their financial stability and their ability to invest in the next farming cycle.

Financial Burden on Cotton Farmers

Vidarbha, especially Yavatmal district, is known for cotton production. However, like other districts in the region, Yavatmal has been in the news for decades due to farmer suicides. Farmers continue to cultivate their land year after year despite the ongoing crisis, hoping for a successful harvest.

A key question is: how much does a cotton farmer in Vidarbha spend per acre in pursuit of a good yield? Their work begins with land leveling, followed by debris removal, purchasing seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, hiring labor, sowing, irrigating crops at the right intervals, and grading cotton once harvested. After all these efforts, when a farmer finally brings his cotton to market, he often struggles to get a fair price.

Due to delays in government procurement, many farmers have had to sell their cotton to traders at prices ranging from ₹5,300 to ₹5,400 per quintal. Cotton farming is the most common practice among Kharif season farmers, and many report spending around ₹36,000 per acre on cultivation. The approximate breakdown of costs includes:

Land leveling: ₹1,000 ,Debris removal: ₹500

Seeds: ₹750,Sowing: ₹1000,Fertilizers: ₹5,000

Herbicides: ₹5,000,Pesticides: ₹5,000

Irrigation: ₹10,000,Cotton grading: ₹4,000

Transportation: ₹2,000,Security: ₹1,000

Unpredictable weather continues to pose a significant threat, and farming costs are rising. Despite this, farmers persist with their work because they have no alternative. However, every time they invest heavily in cultivation, unexpected rainfall often destroys their crops, leading to substantial financial losses. Consequently, they are trapped in an ever-growing cycle of debt.

State government data from the past two years highlights that most farmer suicides in this period occurred in the Amaravati division, with 1,893 recorded cases. Yavatmal district reported the highest number of suicides (295). The Aurangabad division ranked second, with 1,528 suicides in two years, followed by Nashik and Nagpur, where the number of suicides increased compared to 2019. Over two years, these regions recorded 774 and 456 suicides, respectively.

The state’s Relief and Rehabilitation Department attributed the reported decline in suicides in 2020 to the government’s debt waiver program, which provided financial relief to farmers. Additionally, the government granted concessions on land revenue and electricity bills in cases of natural disasters.

Indian agriculture remains heavily dependent on monsoons, and crop failures due to erratic rainfall are a major driver of farmer suicides. Droughts, rising costs, and mounting debts create a cycle of distress, trapping farmers in a web of banks, moneylenders, and middlemen. One of the primary reasons for farmer suicides is the lack of profitability in farming, making it increasingly unviable as a livelihood.

One critical issue is the shrinking size of agricultural land holdings. In 1960-61, the average landholding size was 2.3 hectares, which dropped to 1.6 hectares in 2002-03. While rural households’ income has increased, so have their expenses and debt burdens.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) conducted the All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) 2021-22, which analyzed post-COVID economic conditions based on data from 100,000 rural households. The findings revealed that the average landholding of farmers had declined from 1.08 hectares in 2016-17 to just 0.74 hectares in 2021-22, a 31% drop in five years.

Meanwhile, farmers’ monthly household income increased from ₹8,059 in 2016-17 to ₹12,698 in 2021-22, a 57.6% rise. However, household expenses also grew from ₹6,646 to ₹11,262 per month, marking a 69.4% increase. The proportion of expenditure on food declined from 51% to 47%, indicating that rural families are now spending more on non-food items, raising concerns about food security.

At the same time, debt levels have risen. The percentage of rural households in debt increased from 47.4% to 52%, reflecting economic strain. Institutional borrowing rose from 60.5% to 75.5%, with a significant increase in the use of Kisan Credit Cards (KCC), which expanded from 10.5% in 2016-17 to 44.1% in 2021-22.

Since economic liberalization, agricultural practices, especially cash crop farming, have changed significantly. Due to socio-economic hardships, many farmers lack technical knowledge about high-investment cash crops like Bt cotton. This financial strain makes them more vulnerable to debt and, ultimately, suicide. Addressing this crisis requires comprehensive policy reforms that prioritize financial security, sustainable farming practices, and support for struggling farmers.

The writer can be reached at vikasmeshram04@gmail.com

Chandrababu: Concerned Over Rising Farmer’s Suicides

By LokMarg 10th December 2022

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday expressed serious concern over the “rising number of farmers suicides” in the State.

In a series of tweets, Naidu said that without focusing on such serious public issues, it is really ridiculous that the State government is again talking about united Andhra Pradesh. The State that created history once in the progress of agriculture and aquaculture has recorded 1,673 suicides by farmers in the past three years, Naidu said.
The anti-farmer policies being adopted by the State Government are throwing the agriculturists into a deep debt burden, he said, adding that lack of Minimum Support Price (MSP) and withdrawal of subsidies are forcing them to commit suicides. The State Government is adopting a vengeful attitude towards the common man and is harassing the people for no reason, which is also resulting in a large number of people taking away their lives, he said.

The TDP chief further said when such serious issues are haunting the people throwing them into disappointment and depression, the YSRCP government, instead of focussing on them, is irresponsibly making statements on united Andhra Pradesh, which is not in their hands. This is nothing but to throw the public into utter confusion and also to divert the public attention from these serious issues, he stated.

The YSRCP leaders who did not open their mouths on the funds that are due to the State as per the provisions of the State Reorganisation Act are now making statements on united Andhra Pradesh only to misguide the people on its failures, he said.

In fact, the state suffered more losses due to the YSRCP rule rather than the State bifurcation, added Naidu. (ANI)

Lessons From China In Tackling Farm Distress

By Kunal Bose 3rd May 2019

State governments must adopt a rental model for farm machinery and encourage crop diversification for improvement in soil health, productivity and profitability of farming

As is generally the case with articles published in National Geographic, Tracie Mcmillan’s piece on ‘How China Plans to Feed 1.4 Billion Growing Appetites’ based on extensive travel throws light on how the country is managing to overcome the shortcomings of restricted availability of land and a good portion of that not particularly fertile for farming, tiny holdings throwing a major challenge to mechanisation and restricted availability of water to lift crop productivity.

As China continues to become more prosperous with its growing ranks of urban population seeking Western-style diets, the demand on Beijing goes well beyond ensuring food security to industrialise the agricultural economy at rapid rates. The country figured most prominently in the recent shift of largest metro areas from Western Europe and North America to China. According to Global Metro Monitor 2018, China’s share of the 300 largest metropolitan economies of the world rose from 48 in 2012 to 103 in 2016. During this period, North America’s share is down from 88 to 57 and Western Europe’s from 68 to 43.

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Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong are home to people whose per capita income is much higher than their counterparts engaged in farming and allied activities in rural China. India’s northern neighbour is already close to 60 per cent urban and that has been a long march from 19.8 per cent of the Chinese population living in cities in 1980. According to the World Bank, by 2030, up to 70 per cent of the Chinese population or around 1 billion people will be living in cities. Urbanisation in India has started speeding up more recently and the Bank says that half the country’s population will be living in urban centres. Growing urbanisation as it requires reorganisation of agriculture giving greater weight to livestock and milk and dairy products in gross value added in the sector creates many new economic opportunities.

Farmers getting better value for fruits and vegetables, livestock and milk when the agricultural economy goes through the process of industrialisation has been seen in China for over two decades. The immediate fallout of that will be significant reduction in crop wastage, which in the case of India ranges from 30 to 40 per cent. The average farm size in China is smaller than in India. In fact the two countries, which between them have a population of 2.75 billion have farms whose average size is among the smallest in the world. But as the prospects of getting jobs giving incomes higher than tilling land in tiny plots will ever offer and the charm of city lights are underpinning steady migration to urban centres, the broader agricultural landscape contours will undergo great changes.

This has already happened in a much bigger way in China than in India. The National Geographic article says: “Every kind of agriculture is now happening all at once: tiny family farms, gleaming industrial meat factories and dairies, sustainably minded high-tech farms, even organic urban ones.” Urban Chinese with high disposable income are not only eating meat three times as much as in 1990, they have become big buyers of all kinds of processed food. Their health concerns heightened by recent scandals concerning selling of sub-standard domestically produced food products have reinforced their preferences for foreign branded stuff.

No wonder then, foreign food companies as they are making enormous exports to China are braving the country’s complex regulatory regime to build plants there. Their efforts are bringing relief to local consumers who remain suspicious of the quality of local processed food products. But doesn’t this development go against what President Xi Jinping said some years ago that “our rice bowl should be mainly loaded with Chinese food?”

Whatever XI might have said, China still swears by Deng Xiaoping’s famous ‘cat theory,’ which says: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white; as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat.” Deng who was the de facto leader of the country between 1978 and the early 1990s wanted the job (rapid economic development) done, without making distinction between planned and market economy.

India’s tryst with foreign food companies goes back to many decades. From Levers to GSK Consumer and from Heinz to Danone are finding growing ranks of loyal consumers here of the items they are making at local plants. At the same time, however, some local groups such as Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the owners of Amul brand, Mother Dairy and Godrej Agrovet have fortified their position in the market based on product quality and brand promotion.

More and more local and foreign companies are making investment in the dairy sector, India being the world’s largest producer of milk at 155.5m tonnes. ITC, which is steadily building new businesses to reduce its dependence on tobacco and cigarettes has ambitious dairying plans.

Agriculture is going through gradual structural changes in India and China. While figures for China are not available, India’s Economic Survey 2017-18 says the share of crops in the farm sector gross value added (GVA) was down from 65 per cent in 2011-12 to 60 per cent in 2015-16. In the corresponding period, the share of livestock in agriculture GVA was on ascendency.

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India’s progress in realising values from crop diversification leaves much to be desired. The government at the federal level and in states must encourage farmers to assiduously pursue crop diversification that is to result in improvement in soil health, land productivity and profitability of farming. Water being in short supply in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, it is desirable to use land now under paddy to grow crops like oilseeds, pulses and coarse cereals. Scope remains for shifting of land now under tobacco to growing other crops.

ALSO READ: Crop Diversification Can Fight Rural Distress

What are the common shortcomings of farm economy of China and India? The 10^th agriculture census says not only did the average Indian farmland size shrink more than 6 per cent to 1.08 hectares from 1.15 hectares between 2010-11 and 2015-16, but the share of small and marginal holdings ranging up to 2 hectares rise to 86.2 per cent from 84.97 per cent of total holdings. In China, factors such as continuous diversion of land to construction, natural disasters and damage to environment led to a fall in total arable land for a fourth year in a row in 2017 to 134.86 million hectares, down by 60,900 hectares from the year before. As if there is a competition between the two countries, well over 90 per cent of over 200m farms in China are less than 1 hectare in size.

Mechanisation, which is essential to cope with growing shortages of farm labourers and boost productivity, becomes a challenge when the holdings are so small. Consolidation of land holdings is easily said than achieved. Small farmers are not able to raise funds to buy all the machinery and implements needed for tiling of land to harvesting of crops. China has found a solution to the problem by opening centres wherefrom farmers can take all kinds of machines on hire. The last Economic Survey here speaks of innovating “custom service or a rental model by way of institutionalisation of high cost farm machinery.”

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