Determinants of Farmers’ Suicide in India-A State Level Analysis

Abstract

India is an agrarian country with around 48.9% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. Despite a steady decline of its share in GDP, agriculture is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of our country. It is the main source of food to the growing population. Unfortunately due to uncertainty of monsoon, non-availability of credit, increasing prices of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers, agriculture has become a most critical industry and farmers are suffering due to economic distress and they are committing suicide on large scale in different provinces of the country. Nowadays the problem of farmers’ suicides is one of the vital concerns that need to be addressed by the Government. Considering the paramount importance of this issue, the NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau), for the first time, has collected detailed data on farmers’ suicides. The large section of the farm households has been facing a distress as a consequence of decline in agricultural income, declined repaying capacity and thereby increased debt burden than others. The failure of these monsoons leading to a series of droughts, lack of better prices, exploitation by Middlemen, all of which have led to a series of suicides committed by farmers across India. With this backdrop this study is going to make a state level analysis of the determinants of the farmers’ suicide in India. The results have some policy implications.