AGRARIAN REFORMS AND FARMERS SUICIDES

INTRODUCTION
India is an agrarian economy with around two- third of its working p
opulation directly or indirectly upon agriculture .Though the share of
agriculture and allied sectors in the country’s GDP has declined stead
ily over the years - 51.9 in 1950-51 percent to 13.7 percent in 2012-
13 ..It still is the largest sector and plays an important role in the soci
o -economic development of the country .India could achieve self su
fficiency in foodgrains only in few decades of its political emancipati
on . The food production in the country reached to more than 257 m
illion tonnes in 2011-12 from only 52 millions in 1951-52 .
Farmers suicides in india
The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra Soon
newspapers began to report similar incidents from Andhra Pradesh
.
In the beginning it was believed that most of the suicides were happ
ening among cotton growers , especially from Vidarbha .A look at th
e figures given by
National Crime Records Bureau, an office of the Ministry of Home Af
fairs Government of India, has been collecting and publishing suicide
statistics for India since the 1950s, as annual Accidental Deaths & Su
icides in India reports. It started separately collecting and publishing
farmers suicide statistics from 1995.In 2004, in response to a reques
t from the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association, the
Mumbai High Court required the Tata Institute
to produce a report on farmer suicides in Maharashtra
, and the institute submitted its report in March 2005. The survey cit
ed "government apathy, the absence of a safety net for farmers, and
lack of access to information related to agriculture as the chief caus
es for the desperate condition of farmers in the state. More than 1
7,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006 , acc
ording to government statistics .Besides Maharashtra , the other sta
tes where most suicides occurred were Andhra Pradesh ,Karnataka ,K
erala and Punjab .According to the National Crime Records Bureau [
NCRB ] ,in 2006 , the state of Maharashtra , with 4,453 farmers’ suici
des , accounted for over a quarter of all -India total of 17, 060. NCRB
,also stated that there were at least 16,196 farmers suicides in India i
n 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 1,99,132. According to gov
ernment data , over 5,000 farmers committed suicide between 2005
and 2009 in Maharashtra , while 1,313 cases were reported by Andh
ra Pradesh between 2005 AND 2007 .according to NCRB database , t
he number of suicides during 2005-2009 in Gujarat was 387 , wherea
s in Kerala it was 905 , in punjab 75 and in Tamil Nadu 26 . In April 2
009 , the state of Chhattisgarh reported 1,500 farmers committed su
icide due to debt and crop failure . At least 17,368 Indian farmers kill
ed themselves in 2009 - the worst figure for farm suicides in six
years .
CAUSES
1] There has been decline in the production as well as productivity
for almost all crops from the mid nineties,
2]there is an excessive dependence of a large section of the populati
on on agriculture [ in 2004-05 nearly 64 percent of rural persons wer
e from household members major status was either self employed in
agriculture or agriculture labor ] .
This also indicates that rural non farm employment opportunities
are limited
3] the declining size - class of holding and increasing preponderance
of marginal holdings [ 63 per cent as per 2001-01 agriculture
census ] , along with poor returns from cultivation , indicates that inc
ome for households is very low .
4] much talked about green revolution had a greater focus on rice an
d wheat under irrigated condition bypassing crops and regions
under rainfed or dry land conditions [ which is three -fifths of the
141 million hectares of the net sown area in the country during
2003-04] There has been failure to capitalize on the vast network o
f institution to provide new technology [ including the usage of
biotechnology ] , and a virtual absence of extension service .
5] the neglect of agriculture in plan resource allocation has led to a d
ecline in public investments in irrigation and other related infrastruct
ure .
6] supply of credit from formal sources to the agricultural sector is in
adequate leading to greater reliance on informal sources at higher in
terest burden .
7]last , with changing technology and market conditions the farmer is
increasingly exposed to the increasing market uncertainties
PROFILE OF THE VICTIM
In the predominantly economic reasons that have been identified for
the onset of distress, all the reports from the five states indicate tha
t most of the victims were undertaking commercial agriculture7 and
were struggling with a range of new risks (of production, credit, mar
keting, climate) associated with commercial agriculture. Although cu
ltivating these commercial crops, most of the victims lacked the eco
nomic and social wherewithal to be strong players in the Green Revo
lution game. All the reports indicate that most of the victims from t
he different states were marginal cultivators (less than 1 hectare) an
d small (1 to 2 hectares) cultivators, followed by semi-medium (2 to
4 hectares) cultivators.
 Compounding such economic marginality is the fact that a significant
proportion of the victims were from the ‘Backward Classes’ 9 or fro
m lower ranked caste groups. In Andhra Pradesh, two-thirds of the v
ictims in Warangal were from the Backward Class groups of Yadava,
Chakali, Talaga, Wala, Mangali, Padmashali and Lambada (Citizens’ R
eport 1998). While in Anantapur district, most of the victims were fr
om the non agricultural castes of Sale, Besta and Uppara, although t
here were some from the traditional cultivating castes such as the R
eddy and Baliga. In Amravati and Yavatmal districts, most were also f
rom the middle or non-cultivating castes of Telis, Beldars and Banjar
a or from the Scheduled communities of Maharnav-Buddha, Matang
, Chamar, and Dhangar . For the Vidarbha and Marathwada region
the TISS report (2005) identifies a spread across the caste groups bu
t a predominant number were from the Other Backward Classes10 (
OBC 27 percent) and the other non-scheduled caste The
significance of the number of traditionally non-cultivating caste
members represented in the number o f suicide cases must be
noted.
What the cases indicate is the attempt by members of such non-culti
vating groups to gain a foothold into agriculture. Such measures hav
e been necessitated by the loss of their traditional occupation by the
integration of agriculture into the market economy and the displace
ment of rural products by industrial products. Members of artisan, s
ervice and craft groups such as potters, wheel-makers, smiths, baske
t makers and others have particularly been impacted by such trends.
Until recently such groups have had to perforce resort to becoming
agricultural labourers or to migrating to urban areas. In some cases
where artisan caste groups have taken to agriculture, they face probl
ems as they are unable to practice agriculture without incurring larg
e losses. While several studies have indicated the increasing pauperi
zation and de-peasantization processes which impact small and med
ium cultivators, these cases of suicides underscore the ways in whic
h families from the low-ranked caste strata are attempting to stall or
overcome such conditions of impoverishment or are seeking to enh
ance their incomes and standards of living. In their attempts to sus
tain or enhance their livelihoods, many of these marginal agriculturis
ts attempt to shift from predominantly non-commercial cultivation a
nd gain entry into commercial production .

VIEWS OF VARIOUS SCHOLARS :

The situation Assessment Survey of Farmers in the in the 59th round
NSSO in 2003 revealed that nearly half the farmers in the country we
re indebted . The incidence was higher in states input intensive agric
ulture like Punjab , Haryana ,Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu ,Kerala and n
ess is the root cause of farmers taking their lives . Karnataka , and w
as highest at 82 percent in Andhra Pradesh .

K.Nagrajof Madras School Institute of Development Studies points ou

that .- from mid nineties onwards prices and farm prices and income
s crashed . As costs rose - even as bank credit dried and farm income
s crashed .As costs rose - even as bank credit dried up - so did
indebtedness . Even as subsidies for corporate farmers in west rose ,
we cut our few , very minimal life supports and subsidies to our own
farmers . The collapse of investment in agriculture also meant it was
and is most difficult to get out of this trap . A.Vaidyanathan [2006] t
oo states that farmers suicides are associated with high level of inde
btedness .

According to activist Vandana Shiva

Rapid rise in indebtedness is at the root of farmers’ taking their lives.
Debt is a reflection of a negative economy .Two factors have transfo
rmed agriculture from a positive economy into a negative economy .
Two factors have transformed agriculture from a positive economy i
nto a negative economy for peasants :
the rising costs of production and falling prices of farm commodities
Both these factors are rooted in their policies of trade liberalization
and corporate globalization these policies ensure spiral of indebtedn
ess , generating despair and spiral of indebtedness . Contrarily , acc
ording to Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission,
indebtedness is not the only cause of suicides among farmers , but at
Least 20-25 compelling reasons too have been driving hundreds of fF
Farmers in Madhya Pradesh to kill themselves .Debt per see is not su
fficient condition for suicides , but the processes of recovery of loans
hurts the egoistic tendencies .
Deshpande Durkheim
In his monumental work ‘La suicide ‘ speaks that victims were surpri
singly from nuclear families .Failure of social institutions also leads t
o suicides Sangalad and Hodder
In their paper , have pointed out failure of crops , financial stress , u
nwillingness to adopt scientific farming practices , mental illness and
depression , scarcity of water and electricity .there is advanced marg
inalization global capitalism into the agrarian domain on a large scal,
particularly through the means of seeds, fertilizers etc.
Its entry not only created new identities but also created conditions
for volatile economy- it is here the larger threat of losing “identity” i
s not only perceived but slowly becoming a fact. Suicide is an attemp
t to retain their identity as distinct social categories particularly as ru
ral farmers’ as well as “Market Oriented Autonomous Farmers”(MOA
F). Agrarian Capitalism which once brought new identities and e
uphoria now translated agriculture into a sphere of suicide. It is here
lies the paradox of path of development and the agrarian capitalism.
Agrarian Crisis and Suicides in Karnataka.Although all the reports re
cognize the extent to which such widespread and high indebtedness
among agriculturists was considered by most of the families to be th
e key reason for the distress experienced by the victims and which le
d to their suicide, bases of such indebtedness and its implications hav
e not been recognised. Since the key sources of non-institutional cre
ditors have been agribusiness agencies (who provide both inputs at
deferred credit to agriculturists and loans), and the new money lend
ers and creditors, including relatives and friends who draw on their u
rban salaries, these debts pose a double burden on agriculturists. Fo
r one, interest rates are
exorbitant (ranging from 24 to 45 percent per annum) and secondly t
hey are linked to their personal 5 and social networks. Inability to pa
y is often met with ridicule, ostracism or public humiliation. As sever
al reports and case studies highlight, many of those who committed
suicide did so after experiencing such humiliation or facing threats o
f dispossession of property Ironically, as mentioned above

AGRICULTURE SUBSIDIES—
which before would have provided a safety net for Indian cotton far
mers in just such a precarious situation— had been done away
with under the very same policies that placed farmers in this precari
ous position. An attendant problem was that of minimum support pr
ices (prices at which the government buys crops in the event that th
e market price falls below said minimum support price).
In the case of cotton, the government had—until 2008—
allowed its minimum support prices to lag far behind the rising costs
of inputs, i.e. seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and labor.In a country wh
ere farmers had previously relied on the continued agricultural assist
ance of the state, this sudden withdrawal of the Indian government’s
agricultural support sent many farmers into a tailspin of debt.

In the specific case of Andhra Pradesh

Campaign groups claim the suicides unmanageable debt whereas ot
hers were crippled by fluctuations in food prices . have been caused
by food speculators manipulating cereal prices , and GM seeds
some farmers situation became so tough that some decided to take
their own lives .
There is no farmer who is not indebted to financial institutions, co-
operativesetc. In Karnataka, the farmers borrow Rs.18135 on an
average that is very close to that of the Andhra Pradesh farmers.
The failureofcooperativeinstitution has further made the large num
ber of farmers to fall back on the moneylender who charges
exorbitant interest.
This charge varies from 36 per cent to 60 per cent. Interestingly tw
o kinds of moneylenders have emerged in those areas where farmer
s have committed suicide. One type of moneylenders comes from wi
thin the rural side, who are either big farmers or capitalist farmers, a
nd the second type of the moneylenders comes from the urban areas
. In both the cases, the moneylenders use different techniques to ext
ract the interest. Unlike earlier decades, the moneylenders in the
globalisation context are not interested to appropriate the land in
the event the farmers failed to pay the rent. they are more
interested in interest and not the intention to attach the property

In addition to not being recognized as farmers, women farmers face

other forms of discrimination that are not accounted for by
government
programs. explains that, “a woman without a man does not get loan
s, labour, credit, anything. No one trusts a woman. Sainath states th
at there are particular harms that result from this discrimination: [O
n the one hand the high registration costs, lack of acquaintance with
official procedures, and corruption all make getting land registered i
n their own names : Jayalakshmamma, of Karnataka state, posing wi
th the portrait of her husband who committed suicide in 2003. Jayal
akshmamma tends to her farm with her young son and works as a la
borer earning less than US$1 a day. Most of the compensation mone
y she received from the government went to paying off her husban’s
debts. Center for Human Rights and Global Justice there is uphill
task for women, while on the other, the lack of official property right
makes it impossible for them to access official credit for their
farming activities. The impact of this discrimination is severe
Despite the fact that “close to a fifth of all rural households in India a
re female-headed women have little access to government program
and few have title to land.To cite one study by Oxfam India, in Uttar
Pradesh “less than 1% [of women] have participated in government
training programs, 4% have access to institutional credit and only 8%
have control over agricultural income.

PREVENTIVE STEPS :
Firstly , The solution to the farmer’s plight should be directed towar
ds enabling the farmers to help themselves and sustain on their own
Temporary through monetary relief would not be the solution. The ef
forts should be targeted at improving the entire structure of the
smallwere in the relief is not given on a drought to drought basis, rat
her they are taught to overcome their difficulties through their own
skills and capabilities. The Government needs to come up with proac
tive solutions and the nation has to realize that farmer suicides are n
ot minor issues happening in remote parts of a few states, it is a refl
ection of the true state of the basis of our economy .
Secondly , Posani[2009]-
1] increasing public investment in agriculture , which has declined in
the post reforms period
2] improving institutional credit
3] rationalized marketing structure and healthy rural development
expenditure Vandana Shiva A Shift from GMO
non renewable seeds to organic , open pollinated seed varieties whi
ch farmers can save and share ; from chemical farming to organic far
ming from unfair trade based on unfair and false prices to fair trade
based on real and just prices .And farmers who have made these cha
nges are earning 10 times the farmers growing Monsanto’s Bt-cotto

of organizing farmers needs to be addressed through a federation of

self help groups self help groups [SHGS ] or alternative microfinance
structures
Sanglard and Huddar
Have suggested the following measures :
Farmers Counselling Centres should be established at the Mandal
Panchayat level with appointment of the trained staff -psychologist ,
agriculture scientist , doctor , social worker , private money lender an
d mandal panchayat . Proper training should be imparted to the far
mers by agriculture experts regarding use of fertilizers .
Awareness among farmers towards use of scientific farming openin
g of counselling centres . Encourage farmers to adopt the allied activ
ities like dairy , poultry etc along with farming activities as by extens
ive desk research

RIGHTS AND GLOBAL JUSTICE

Centre for human
Oninternational human rights law, and the Center’s longstanding wor
k on human rights in India. CHRGJ calls on the Indian government to:
Investigate and address the effects of economic reforms, including th
e corporatization of agriculture, on cotton farmers and other cash cr
op farmers. The government must take into account its various inter
national human rights law obligations when conducting these investi
gations, and must act immediately to address areas where its presen
t economic policies— including it support or acquiescence in the cor
poratization of farmingare incompatible with its human rights obliga
tions.294 Address the recommendations of the officially constituted
National Commission on Farmers and place an Action Taken Report
on these recommendations.295 Take steps, in line with both of th
e recommendations above, to revitalize the agricultural sector in a
manner that puts farmers’ human rights at the center of governmen
t policies and programming, including, but not limited to: Ensuring
greater access to official credit in rural areas and facilitating
expanded access to credit for all populations, including women and
other marginalized farmers.296 Evolving just and equitable mechani
sms to ensure farmers’ access to water, including irrigation water.
297 Implementing public provisioning of affordable inputs, such as s
eeds, pesticides, and fertilizer; facilitating the availability of tradition
al seeds through community-managed “Seed Villages”; and improvin
g farmer yields by setting up “Seed Technology Training Centres.298
Conduct extensive statistical and qualitative research into the farme
r suicide situation and tailor government programs accordingly: Th
e national government should work with state governments to:
develop uniform methodologies for monitoring farmer economics,
health,And suicide rates in order to provide complete data on agrari
an conditions; and ensure that relevant suicides are not being
excluded because of restrictive definitions of who is and is not a
farmer. Statistics should include data on farmers who may not have
title.
Conduct extensive statistical and qualitative research
into the farmer suicide situation and tailor government programs
accordingly: to The national government should work with state gov
ernments to: develop uniform methodologies for monitoring farmer
economics, health, and suicide rates in order to provide complete da
ta on agrarian conditions; and ensure that relevant suicides are not
being excluded because of restrictive definitions of who is and is not
a farmer. o Statistics should include data on farmers who may not ha
ve title to their land, including women, Dalit and Adivasi farmers, or
tenant farmers. The Indian government should additionally investi
gate and Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights, and t
he Agrarian Crisis in India 23 address specific problems faced by
marginalized farmers, in particular problems related to land registrat
ion and access to credit. o Statistics also should include data on land
-holding size, seed usage, agricultural input (fertilizer and pesticides,
etc.) usage, and the farmers’ economic situation. Ensure that funds f
rom compensation schemes designed to assist family survivors of sui
cide victims are sufficient, reach all affected families, and are distrib
uted in a timely and thorough manner. Ensure access in rural comm
unities to proper health care services, including counseling services.
These services should be attentive to the unique needs of small-scal
e farmers and family survivors of suicide victims. Implement and enf
orce laws that appropriately regulate multinational and domestic ag
ribusiness firms. Regulations should address the human rights impac
ts of agribusiness firms on smallholder farmers and should require th
at all instructions and warnings related to special conditions require
d by the seed be fully explained and understood by purchasing farm
ers. CHRGJ additionally calls on agribusinesses, domestic or foreign,
operating in India’s agricultural sector to ensure that their practices
comport with their responsibilities under the “Protect, Respect, and
Remedy” framework described above.299 In particular businesses s
hould: Respect human rights by ensuring that the products and
services they provide do not infringe on thehuman rights of Indian
farmers.
CONCLUSION
The study focused on the agricultural crisis and farmers’ suicides.
Most of the farmer’s suicide was due to the distress, crop failure,
indebtedness, poverty, lack of institutional credit, poor irrigation,
lack of awareness on new technologies, a high-interest rate of non-
institutional agencies and lack of government policies. The review
shed light on the fact that there was a lack of research done
specifically on the plight of tenant farmers’ suicides in India. Previous
studies had also focused on the time period when suicide may occur.
They also noted that reasons for suicide changed as per the gender
of the farming community. Caste also played a role in the case of
farmers’ suicide. Thus, one can say that demographic factors played
a major role with regard to farmers’ suicide. The government was
providing subsidies, short- term bank loans, and crop insurance
benefits to the farmers. In India, many state governments had
waived farmer’s bank debt but even then, farmers were committing
suicides. Such sort of short-term government measures was not
enough to stop the farmer’s suicides and agricultural crisis.
Therefore, the government should provide irrigation facilities,
minimum support price for their products and increase the long-term
institutional credit. Such kind of long-term measures will reduce
farmer’s suicides and agricultural crisis.
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Thatai, (2015).
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