Farmer Suicides Research Articles

Problematising the Suicides of Older Male Farmers: Subjective, Social and Cultural Considerations

AbstractThe literature on suicide reveals an academic praxis that largely overlooks the group potentially at highest risk of suicide, namely older male farmers. Within the broader literature on suicide, a small and constrained body of articles has provided empirical evidence and review of the individual risk factors for older male suicides. The rural studies literature on suicide has predominantly focused on the risk factors of suicide for farmers and rural youth and the ways in which masculinities are implicated in suicide. This article engages with these literatures for what they might reveal about the suicides of older male farmers but also critiques their limitations and makes suggestions about potentially revealing avenues for empirical investigation. It argues that the suicides of older male farmers, both real and within discourse, raise complex questions concerning reasons for suicide, embedded within subjective, social and cultural contexts. Examination of cultures of farming masculinity, rural cultures of ageing and the ways in which old age and suicide are problematised may therefore provide critical insights into the suicides of older farming men.

A regional approach to understanding farmer suicide rates in Queensland

Elevated suicide rates among farmers have been observed across a number of countries, including Australia. However, studies on farmer suicide have typically treated farmers as a homogenous group, and have predominately been focussed at a national level. This overlooks potential variability in suicide rates (and, by extension, contributory factors) within different groups of farmers (for example, different age groups), as well as across different geographical locations. Using a unique data source, the Queensland Suicide Register, the current study examined variation in farmer suicide rates by age, sex, and location within Queensland. Although farmer suicide rates varied substantially across different regions of Queensland, no significant associations were found between rates of farmer and non-farmer suicide, or between the proportion of farmers in a region and farmer suicide rates. This suggests that farmer suicide may be characterised by unique combinations of occupational and location-related effects that are likely to vary substantially within and between different regions, and provides caution against treating farmer suicide as a homogenous phenomenon. The highest rates of farmer suicide were observed among younger farmers (aged 18-34years), highlighting a need for targeted suicide prevention initiatives for this group.

Risk factors for suicide among rural men: are farmers more socially isolated?

Purpose– International evidence demonstrates elevated suicide rates among farming occupations, relative to other occupations. A psychosocial factor commonly argued to contribute to farmer suicide is social isolation and lack of social support, which in turn may indicate a need for policies and programs to support farmers' social participation and connectedness with others. However, there has been very little empirical investigation of perceived levels of social connectedness and social participation among farmers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– This study used a cross-section of a nationally representative dataset, the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. This enabled quantification of Australian farmers' self-reported levels of social connectedness and social participation, relative to rural adult males in other occupations.Findings– Levels of perceived social support and social participation among farmers were approximately equivalent to social support and social participation among rural men in other occupations.Research limitations/implications– Possible mediating variables, such as influences of social support on mental health, were not examined in this study. However, these findings nonetheless suggest the assumption that social isolation is higher among farmers requires careful consideration.Originality/value– This is the first study that quantifies social support and social participation among farmers, using a comparative approach.

Critique of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill

The first hue was raised when the BT Cotton was approved as a commercial GM crop in India. The events that followed (mass farmer suicides, farmers’ unrest and resistance all over the Deccan region) ensured that it was the first and the last GM crop to be approved and adopted. Therefore, the pressing need of the hour is to have a proper mechanism to regulate this sector, which affects not only health of individual citizens, but of the entire country as a whole.Therefore, the Parliament seeks to form a new regulatory authority, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), which would single-handedly be responsible for the entire regulatory system, from research, transport, import and export to manufacture and use of GM organisms throughout India.

Beyond discourses of drought: The micro-politics of the wine industry and farmer distress

Farmer suicides have lead to a problematization of the mental health of farmers against the backdrop of farming as an occupation. In Australia, the dominant discursive framework shaping this problematization is one of ‘drought stress’ constituted through a positivist empiricism and ‘psy’ discourses of mental health. The contours of this dominant framework operate to limit other possible renderings of farmer suicide and narrow the frame of appropriate response. In particular, this framework marginalizes political, economic and cultural dimensions relevant to understanding farmer suicide. This paper draws on theoretical and empirical resources to disrupt the dominant discourse of ‘drought stress’. The study on which it is based involved in-depth interviews with primary producers of wine grapes and was initiated by the Wine Grape Growers Association in the context of concerns about the social and economic effects of drought. What emerged during the interviews however, were issues arising from agri-business. This paper engages with Foucault's analyses of neoliberal political economy to explore the micro-politics of the wine industry within the broader regulatory apparatus of agriculture. It considers how the state and corporate agriculture constrain autonomy, economic conditions and the ability of farmers to continue to farm thereby creating distress and at times suicide. From this perspective, the paper argues that farmer's suicides are rendered political and warrant interventions which go beyond the individual and beyond the external and almost insurmountable conditions of drought and climate change.

Suicides in India: An Alternative Economic Perspective

Suicides in India are steadily increasing over the last two decades. This period coincides with the time during which the Indian economy has achieved high growth and integrated globally through fundamental structural changes. This paper examines the pattern of suicides in the country as revealed by the official statistics and finds the relative shares of suicides to have increased in several prosperous states, which are also the more globalised states. It finds suicides in most of these states, which have high urban income inequality, to be largest among self-employed (others). While farmer suicides show a welcome declining trend in recent years, the increasing tendency of self-employed (others) to take their lives in India's prosperous states is a disturbing trend. The paper argues that lack of adequate livelihood opportunities, low skills, limited access to formal credit and absence of social security support are precipitating suicides in the rapidly enlarging informal sector of a restructuring Indian economy.

Food Consumption Patterns Among the Households in Odisha and Bihar, the Poorest States of India

The initiation taking from different reform in these two state is going to failed itself after six decades of freedom. Here the presence of farmer suicide malnutrition, hunger and food insecurity due to poverty, planned expenditure from agriculture to non- agriculture, corruption, absence agro entrepreneur will throw the economies of states to Hell. The lifestyle and living pattern of the people on these state is so marginal as compare to different state. So he failure and the consumption pattern of these people is a burning, suggestible and burnish topic in both the state economies as well as in our nation. The consumption pattern of the high and middle income group is taking into account But there is no evidence against this to analyse all these. The appear is intended to fill this research gap by providing some preliminary insights. In addition, policy implications also discussed and arenas for further research are also identified in future.

Literacy in India

In today's complex and fast evolving environment, understanding India's economy is not just an intellectual challenge, but, with the country emerging as a major global player, also a requirement. This concise and reader-friendly volume addresses this need. Culled from the collective wisdom of distinguished contributors, the volume provides a comprehensive and engaging account of the trends and issues across various sectors of the Indian economy. More than 100 pertinent entries, organized thematically, cover the evolution of the Indian economy from relative obscurity to an emergent global force. They span the recent cover stories of India's phenomenal growth, and also document the backwaters-widespread poverty, farmer suicides, child labour, and the large and impoverished informal sector. A new introduction and some new entries cover the developments since the first edition was written, and also focus on the economic crises. An appendix presents relevant statistics on Indian economic indicators, which will serve as a handy reference for students of the Indian economy and, more generally, of development economics.

Incidence of Poisoning Cases in the Yavatmal Region of Maharashtra: Region Known For Farmer Suicide

Incidence of Poisoning Cases in the Yavatmal Region of Maharashtra: Region Known For Farmer Suicide

R.S. Deshpande and Saroj Arora (eds), Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2010, pp. xxi + 436, Rs.895.

R.S. Deshpande and Saroj Arora (eds), <i>Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides</i>, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2010, pp. xxi + 436, Rs.895.

Patterns and Determinants of Agricultural Growth in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is economically among the most developed states in the country. But it is not counted among the advanced states in India in terms of agricultural production, though most of the state's workforce still depends on agriculture. During the last four decades, the agricultural sector has undergone many changes. Though agricultural performance improved, its progress was not sustained and showed wide fluctuations. The important characteristics of agriculture are instability in crop production and significant regional variations. Recent suicides of farmers in Vidarbha and Marathawada have once again highlighted regional disparity. An attempt has been made in this paper to analyse the differential agricultural growth pattern experienced and identify appropriate policy interventions.

Farmers Suicides in India A Continuum of Neo-Liberal Policies

The motivation of writing this paper is to clarify a number of issues arose from a debate organized by Christian Amanpour, a CNN Anchor between Professors Bhgawati and Vandana Shiva. We argue that Professor Bhagwati's assertion that farmers' suicides were more of an institutional and cultural phenomenon is incorrect. In fact, evidence suggests that farmers' suicides are a direct consequence of mechanical application of Neo-Liberal policies pursued under the umbrella of globalization. We offered Professor Bhagwati an opportunity to respond to our comments but he refused to do so.

Farmers' suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, India: A qualitative exploration of their causes

:Background:To explore the various perceived reasons for farmers’ suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, their common factors, and to suggest solutions.Methods:The present formative research was undertaken in the 23 villages surrounding the Anji Primary Health Centre, located in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, India. A triangulation of free list and pile sort exercises was used. The data was analyzed by Anthropac 4.98.1/X software. This was followed by a semi-structured focus group discussion. To increase the validity of the results, these findings were presented to the participants and later they were circulated to the 26 farmers’ clubs in the villages for comment and discussion during their monthly, village based meetings.Results:Farmers perceived debt, addiction, environmental problems, poor prices for farm produce, stress and family responsibilities, government apathy, poor irrigation, increased cost of cultivation, private money lenders, use of chemical fertilizers and crop failure as the reasons for farmers’ suicides. Participants suggested solutions such as self-reliance and capacity building among farmers, a monitoring and support system for vulnerable farmers, support and counseling services, a village-level, transparent system for the disbursement of relief packages.Conclusions:Farmers’ suicides in Vidarbha are caused by the complex interplay of social, political and environmental constraints. Hence, a comprehensive intervention to ensure self reliance and capacity building among farmers in modern farming techniques , monitoring and support system for vulnerable farmers, a village-level, transparent system for disbursement of relief packages is required to prevent farmer suicides in the near future. Apart from this, there is a need to strengthen the National Mental Health Program at primary health care level to offer support and counseling to vulnerable farmers in rural area.

Abstract: Children and Youth in Crisis: The Experiences of Children of Farmers who Committed Suicide in India

Most developing countries have adopted neo-liberal policies since the late 1980s, in the hope of accelerating development. This has been accompanied by a clear shift in the approach of the state to agriculture and rural development. A large section of the population in these countries, however continue to be rural and dependent on agriculture and allied activities for sustenance and do not have access to formal sector credit. From a strategy that was predominantly supply-led and characterised by directed credit programmes to the sector, there has been a shift towards market oriented approach characterised by interest rate deregulation and reduction in subsidies. At the same time, there is also talk of the need for greater financial inclusion and outreach as a precondition for accelerating growth and reducing income disparities and poverty. The Indian experience has been in line with this. There are a number of dimensions to the shift in policy in India since the early 1990s: investment in agriculture came down; banking sector reforms were introduced reducing directed credit to agriculture; agricultural subsidies were withdrawn and as a consequence, cost of production increased; external trade liberalisation exposed farmers to price volatility; and price support services provided by the state were withdrawn. All this has led to slowing down and stagnation in agricultural growth, affecting the income and employment of a large number of rural people dependent on agriculture. An acute manifestation, of the shift in the policy towards agriculture in India has been the phenomenon of farmers committing suicides. During the period 2001-05, 86,922 farmers are reported to have committed suicide. The suicide mortality rate (SMR, suicide deaths per 100,000 persons) for male farmers increased from 12.3 in 1996 to a peak of 19.2 in 2004, and declined marginally to 18.2 in 2005, coinciding with the period of the agrarian crisis (Government of India, 2007) . The phenomenon is continuing. According to another report, about 2.16 lac farmers committed suicide between 1997 and 2009 (Sainath 2010). The state of Maharashtra in India and eastern Maharashtra or the Vidarbha region in particular is one of the epicenters of the agrarian crisis. It is in fact part of the semi-arid rainfed farming belt across which the problem prevails. The main reasons highlighted for the problem are – pre-existing conditions of very high vulnerability of the region, acute agrarian crisis as a consequence of the neoliberal policies and absence of alternate livelihood opportunities, particularly for the poor, during the period of agrarian crisis in this region. Impact on the Children of the Farmers who Commit Suicide. A majority of the farmers committing suicide are in their thirties and forties and they leave behind young widows and children and aged parents. The tragedy has tremendous psychological impact on the children of these farmers, who are overnight made to grow up and take on responsibilities beyond their age. Education is the first calamity in the face of such crises. In some cases, the older children especially the boys are forced to drop out of school and attend to farming the land. With practically no knowledge of what they have to do, they are thrust into adult life and faced with the mantle of taking care of their younger siblings. Girls face the pressure of dropping out and lending a hand at house work and also working as farm labour. The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India, piloted an initiative to support the education of the school going children in the farmer suicide affected families in one district of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in 2006. The paper will present some of the cases of these children and how their lives were forced to change due to the crisis.

Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India: An Evidence-based Assessment

Bt cotton is accused of being responsible for an increase of farmer suicides in India. In this article, we provide a comprehensive review of evidence on Bt cotton and farmer suicides. Available data show no evidence of a ‘resurgence’ of farmer suicides. Moreover, Bt cotton technology has been very effective overall in India. Nevertheless, in specific districts and years, Bt cotton may have indirectly contributed to farmer indebtedness, leading to suicides, but its failure was mainly the result of the context or environment in which it was planted.

Hydrological externalities and livelihoods impacts: Informed communities for better resource management

Summary Hydrological knowledge or information has mostly remained in the domain of scientific community. The communities that interact with the hydrological aspects such as groundwater and surface water on a day to day basis are hardly aware of the information that could critically influence their livelihoods. From the perspective of the communities’ information pertaining to groundwater aquifer characters, potential to provide the water resource, surface groundwater interactions in varying geo-hydrological conditions are important. The ‘public good’ nature of the resources and their linkages with ecological systems gives rise to externalities that could be pervasive. In a number of countries, especially the developing countries, groundwater is the single largest source of drinking as well as irrigation water. In the absence of scientific information with the communities, extraction of groundwater resources for productive purposes has become a risky venture leading to adverse impacts on livelihoods. The externalities associated with over exploitation of groundwater resources and the resulting widespread well failure is identified as one of the main reasons for pushing farmers into debt trap and one of the reasons for farmer suicides in India. The negative externalities are increasingly becoming severe in the context of climate variability. This paper attempts to highlight the importance of hydrological information to the user communities from a socioeconomic perspective using a newly developed framework ‘REDUCE’ based on theories of effective communication. It shows, based on the evidence, how farming communities are getting affected in the absence of the basic hydrological information across socioeconomic groups. It is argued, using relevant information that the negative externalities could be mitigated to a large extent with proper dissemination of information among the communities and capacitating them to measure and use the information on their own. In order to make the hydrological information relevant and useful for the communities at the macro level, there are six key areas to be addressed viz., Resource (water), Estimation or Evaluation, Distribution, Users, Communication and Execution. Ground water extraction and use is associated with mostly negative externalities. Estimation methods and scale are not commensurate with the users’ needs. The natural distribution pattern of the groundwater accentuates the inequalities in its access and use. These inequalities could be corrected through proper policy interventions that pave the way for treating the resources as a common pool resource instead of allowing it to be exploited like a private resource. That is, the hydrological resources ought to be brought under the management regime with the help of policy and governance structures. Users neither have the wherewithal to obtain the right kind of information nor the ability to manage the resource judiciously without institutional support. In this context the communication part of the process of groundwater management becomes important. The external agencies like the NGOs, scientists and policy makers and implementers have to interact and provide the right kind of information packaged to suit the needs of the users. Innovative execution of policies through evolution of institutional mechanisms and user involvement is key to the success of groundwater management.

Contradictions in the Last Mile

Despite its use to exemplify how the world is “flat,” India is in many ways “spiky.” Hyderabad is a prosperous hub of information–communication technology (ICT) while its impoverished agricultural hinterland is best known for dysfunctional agriculture and farmer suicide. Based on the belief that a lack of knowledge and skill lay at the root of agrarian distress, the “e-Sagu” project aimed to leverage the city’s scientific expertise and ICT capability to aid cotton farmers. The project fit with a national surge of “last mile” projects bringing ICT to the village, but it was unique in using ICT to connect farmers directly with agricultural scientists acting as advisors. Such projects fit the interests of many actors, which has led to an unrealistic national enthusiasm about their impacts. This article uses the first five years of the project as a lens to view the cultural nature of both indigenous agricultural knowledge and “scientific” agricultural advising. Unlike lay publics whose uptake of science is better known, with farmers the invention and adoption of agro-scientific knowledge is deeply embedded in daily productive activities and sociocultural interactions. E-Sagu eventually had to abandon its construction of agricultural science as objective and acultural, resorting to rural methods of persuasion. It also found that it could only survive by joining forces with companies promoting commodification of agricultural inputs, which was a cause of the agrarian distress it sought to alleviate.

Socio Economic Profile of Rural Women and the Role of Animal Husbandry Intervention in a Suicide Affected District of Kerala

There have been reports of farmer suicides in the Wayanad district in the south Indian state of Kerala and an investigation was undertaken to assess the socio economic profile of rural women and explore the possible role of animal husbandry in this district. The three taluks in Wayanad district were purposively selected from which a total of 103 women from self help groups functioning under the government sponsored poverty eradication programme were selected at random. Data was collected using a pre tested interview schedule in October 2006. Nearly one third of respondents indicated that their primary occupation was agriculture with some animal husbandry component. Availability of latrine, type of roof and walls of home, as well as domestic source of water were the three variables which used in this study to determine the quality of life of the sample population. Nearly 15 per cent of women did not have separate latrine facilities on their homestead and nearly seven per cent lived in make shift houses. More than half of the respondents were in the age group 25 - 35 years and their average yearly income was reported by them to be Rs 3768. Over three fourths (75.7%) of these households kept livestock along with crops. The paper emphasizes the importance of exploring alternate employment and income generating activities such as animal husbandry in order to improve the socio economic conditions of these women since the family background variables have a vital role in the development of personality traits in children which could affect quality of human capital in the future generation of the district.

The Role of Non-Farm Sector in Indian Economy

There is a close relation ship between development and change in occupational structure from agriculture to industry and from industry to service sector. Based on such empirical premises many models were developed to make the 'Transition' of the Less Developed Countries (LDCs) from a pre-capitalist mode of production to an advanced capitalistic mode of production. Further expansion of non-farm sector was quite critical to many of these theories. Among the Asian countries, the most sited example is of East Asia's extra-ordinary growth performance after 1970's. However in India there was a predominance of agricultural employment till 1970. It was attributed to two factors. Firstly, the weak linkages between the agriculture and non-agriculture sector and secondly, the lack of resilience on the part of village industries to meet the demands of the more affluent sections of the peasantry. Surprisingly from the early 1970's there is a shift of rural workforce towards non-agriculture sector. It is largely agreed in literature that the 1980's non-farm growth was fostered by massive public investment in infrastructure and poverty reduction, where as in 1990's the growth could not be sustained due to massive cut in public expenditure under New Economic policy. Non-farm income in rural India contributed, on an average, about one third (34 per cent) of the total household income in 1993/4. Non-farm income shares are highest in the states of Himachal Pradesh, the Northeast, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. In these states, non-farm income sources account for more than 45 per cent of total income (more than 50 per cent in Himachal Pradesh and the Northeast). Conversely, in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka the share of income accruing from non-farm sources is below 25 per cent (and below 20 per cent in Maharashtra). It is further argued by various studies that sustainable irrigation facility along with equitable distribution of land, education and access to cheaper credit would not only ensure higher productivity in agriculture sector but also promote growth of non-farm employment in the long run. The sub agro-climatic regional analysis revealed that, though there can be growth of non-farm sector in the hitherto backward regions through ground water exploitation, mechanization of agriculture, use of improved seeds and fertilizers etc., there is a greater need to work towards other forms of sustainable irrigation facilities if those regions do not have regular rainfall and if the current levels of ground water exploitation are unsustainable. Coming to the relevance of non-farm sector in development debate, it is clear from the study that states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka which have very low share of income accruing from non-farm source (below 25 per cent and below 20 per cent in Maharashtra) are the ones which also experienced highest farmer's suicide in India. Therefore, the need for diversification from farm to non-farm sector in those states to enhance livelihood security in India is highly indispensable.

Erratum: Doubts surround link between Bt cotton failure and farmer suicide

Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 9–10 (2009); published online 8 January 2009; corrected after print 9 February 2009 In the version of this article initially published, in column 3, line 3 in the last paragraph, Debdatta Sengupta was referred to as “he.” The text should have read “she” as Sengupta is a woman. The error has been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions of the article.