Farmer Suicides Research Articles

"Sowing Hope: Examining Agricultural Indebtedness, Farmer Suicides, and Community Resilience in Marathwada"

India, with its agrarian heritage deeply embedded in its socio-economic fabric, has encountered a formidable challenge in recent years—the agrarian crisis. Nowhere is this crisis more pronounced than in the Marathwada region, where the intricate interplay of factors such as agricultural indebtedness, erratic weather patterns, and the resulting farmer suicides has cast a shadow over the once-vibrant agricultural landscape. Marathwada, a region in the heart of India, has historically been an agricultural stronghold, contributing significantly to the nation's food production. However, the persistent challenges faced by farmers in this region have escalated into a multifaceted crisis that demands urgent attention and comprehensive understanding. This research article seeks to unravel the complex dynamics of the agrarian crisis in Marathwada, shedding light on the interconnected issues of agricultural indebtedness and farmer suicides. Furthermore, it aims to explore the commendable resilience and coping mechanisms exhibited by communities grappling with these challenges. By delving into the unique socio-economic and environmental context of Marathwada, this study aspires to contribute nuanced insights that can inform evidence-based policies, fostering sustainable solutions for the region's agricultural future.

Development of a Pomegranate Fruit Disease Detection and Classification Model using Deep Learning

Background: India’s economy heavily relies on agriculture, which provides a living for a significant portion of the nation’s population. Agriculture in India faces several challenges, including fruit diseases. Pomegranate cultivation is widespread across various states in India, with Maharashtra, Karnataka Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu being major pomegranate-producing states. Fruit disease detection and classification play a significant part in refining crop yield: water scarcity, soil degradation, outdated farming techniques and the impact of climate change. Farmer suicides are a distressing issue, often linked to financial burdens, crop failures and debt. Manual disease detection methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming and prone to errors. Furthermore, understanding the data usually requires the knowledge of qualified specialists. These restrictions may make it more difficult to detect diseases promptly and increase the chance that the disease will spread across the flock, which could have dangerous results. Methods: In this paper, we use the PomeNetV2 Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture and also examine 4 diseases of pomegranate fruit with names: Alternaria, Anthracnose, Bacterial Blight, Cercospora and Healthy. We used a proposed dataset of 5099 pomegranate fruit disease images. We compared the results of the proposed pomegranate fruit disease classification method with those of existing works. Result: Based on our experimental findings, the suggested framework outperforms all other state-of-the-art models with an accuracy of 99.02% for 75 epochs in identifying healthy and diseased pomegranate fruit.

Agrarian Distress in Indian Agriculture: Causes, Socio-economic Consequences and Coping Strategies

Agrarian distress is the economic, political and social challenges faced by the farmers and rural communities due to factors such as low crop yields, fluctuating prices of agricultural produce, high input costs, indebtedness, and lack of access to credit, markets, and infrastructure. Over 8,00,000 individuals are dies by suicide each year because of various reasons. More over the suicides are happening in the families whose own land is less than 1-2 hectares, who are in debt, have been identified the most at risk for suicide. The present article aims at better understanding of the causes, consequences and possible coping strategies for the agrarian distress in India. Causes such as fluctuations in crop sales, weather and climate conditions, dependent on natural resources, etc. are discussed in detail. Consequences of agrarian stress are suicides of farmers, rural migration, food insecurity, environmental impacts and so on. Solutions such as strengthening the forward markets, comprehensive crop insurance schemes for the framers where the non-MSP (Minimum Support Price) crops also may be covered, assured price to the farmers are discussed. Many researchers argued that farmers suicides are increasing but the research is limited in the specialised area of interest. In addition to that, researchers are focussing only on the socio-economic variables rather than the psychological variables. In order to mitigate the risks out of agrarian distress, farmers should be encouraged by the government and extension service providers to take up the subsidiary occupations and secondary agricultural occupations which helps them in getting profits in the situations where the crop damages due to the extreme weather patterns. As rightly pointed out by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), distress of the framers should have a long-term potential solution such as major reforms in the existing agricultural laws rather than farm loan waivers which acts as the short-term relief to the farmers.

Social and Economic Consequences of Farmer Suicides in Karnataka: Impacts on Rural Communities and Beyond

In this research paper, an attempt has been made to overview the present scenario of farmer suicides in Karnataka, India, is given in the abstract, along with a focus on the disastrous social and economic effects of this phenomenon. In fact, there were 3,515 farmers committed suicide between 2013 and 2018, with small and marginal farmers who owned less than 5 acres of land being the bulk of these deaths. The main causes of these suicides were debt, crop failure, and limited access to institutional funding. Farmers who commit suicide have far-reaching effects on society in addition to the agricultural community. Declining agricultural output, rural-to-urban population mobility, and the breakdown of social structures are all problems facing rural communities. Reduced agricultural output, a loss of revenue for farming households, and an increase in the demand on government resources for relief operations are of the economic effects. The social consequences include a rise in domestic violence, mental health issues, and alcoholism in rural areas. The summary highlights how farmer suicides have an impact on metropolitan people who rely on agricultural goods for their sustenance, in addition to remote rural communities. The Karnataka government has launched programs including loan waivers, crop insurance policies, and irrigation projects to prevent farmer suicides. To address the root reasons of farmer suicides, further work must be done. This work should focus on supporting sustainable farming practices, increasing institutional funding availability, and offering mental health services to farming communities.

Toward a Public Health Approach to Farmer Suicide Prevention: The Potential Power of Systems Change

ABSTRACT Objective Suicide among farmers has, over the past 20 years, garnered attention from scholars around the world. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this paper will present a framework for considering farmer suicide that builds upon the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior and extends our current explanations of suicide to include a multilevel, multifactorial focus on individual, interpersonal, community and systemic factors at the root of stressors contributing to suicide among farmers. Secondly, a blueprint for farmer suicide prevention, leveraging the Water of Systems Change Model, is proposed. Method In the spirit of conveying multi-layered influence on farmer suicide while highlighting relevant levels for prevention a parsimonious, prevention-based model of farmer suicide is presented. Results The Water of Systems Change (WSC) model incorporates research to bring attention to the community, organizational, and societal conditions that keep a problem, such as farmer suicide, from being eradicated. Conclusion Suicide is a societal issue that requires a multi-level response. Farmer suicide is a particular concern, as farmers provide for and support all of us. It is incumbent upon public health and the community-at-large to improve our policies, systems, and contexts to create an environment in which farmers are also provided for and supported.

Psychological autopsy study of suicides in farmers: Study from Kerala.

Though agricultural farming is considered a peaceful and healthy industry it has a high rate of mortality especially suicide. In India, 11.2% of suicides are reported in the farming sector. To identify the role of psychosocial factors leading to farmer's suicide in a farmer's dominant district of Kerala. One hundred and sixty-six successive suicides in Wayanad district and age, sex, marital status, and financial status matched normal controls residing in the same locality were evaluated and compared on psycho-social demographic variables, life events, and details of suicide. Significantly a greater number of victims were living separately, living in rented homes, had no own land for cultivation, migrated, had marital discord, and strained relationships with relatives. They had loans from private financial enterprises and single money persons, had past attempts, a family history of alcoholism, and highly stressful life events. The most frequent psychiatric diagnosis was alcohol dependence/abuse followed by depression. The majority committed suicide by hanging followed by insecticide poisoning. Intention to commit suicide was expressed by 38.5% and 30.2% were intoxicated at the time of attempt. The venue for the attempt was the own house in 75.7% of cases. This study suggests the following remedial measures to prevent farmers' suicides. Expert advice to manage financial constraints like availing loans, crop insurance, etc. Guidance from the agricultural department for cost-effective cultivation. Early identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

“We’re All in This Together”: Farmers’ Reactions to the Farmer Suicide Crisis

ABSTRACT Farmer suicide rates continue to increase, with levels being 1.5 times higher than the national rate. This has led agricultural and public health groups to craft and distribute farm stress and suicide messages to help farmers. However, suicide rates remain at critical levels indicating that there may be a disconnect between existing efforts and farmer sensemaking of the crisis. Utilizing the Theory of Memorable Messages (ToMM), this study explored how farmers are reacting to messages and conversations about the farmer suicide crisis. Interviews with 25 participants found most had heard about farmer suicide concerns. When asked about their memorable conversations, farmers reflected a complex sensemaking process that included themes of memorable conversation types ranging from externalization to acceptance and message themes oriented around concern for self and others within these conversation types. Overall, most farmers externalized the risk of suicide to other farmers. However, even though participants did not see themselves at risk, their responses often showed deep concern for helping other farmers. These results are discussed in light of sensemaking and memorable conversations, with practical implications for future messaging efforts around farmer suicide.

Farmers' Suicides in India: A Qualitative Study of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana States of India.

Suicides by the farmers' is increasing in India. From 2005 to 2020, 319,598 famers committed suicide and in states of AP and Telangana this number was 319,598 which is 28% of the total. It implies that more than one quarter of the total number of farmers' who committed suicide in the ountry were from Telangana and AP. Worldwide farming is considered as a high risk occupation for mental diseases. May be because of the nature of farming and the risk of natural calamities. The study aims to identify the factors that contribute to farmer suicides in Telangana andAndhra Pradesh (AP) and to propose preventive solutions for the problem. In this research in-depth interviews were done with the close relatives ofthe person who committed suicide and qualitative methodology is used. We find that the main causes of farmers suicides are economic and not themental health of the farmers.

FarmTrend Insights: Harnessing Regression-Fuzzy Models for Farmer Economic Predictions

India, often referred to as an agricultural country, has 52% of its population engaged in agriculture. The agricultural sector's prosperity is heavily dependent on regional climatic conditions. Adverse weather events significantly impact farmers' economic stability, exacerbating existing pressures and contributing to high rates of farmer suicides. This paper proposes a novel solution: the integration of regression-fuzzy models for predicting the economic conditions of farmers. By utilizing historical weather data spanning the past decade, this model aims to forecast economic fluctuations and mortality rates among farmers. The primary objective is to reduce the mortality rate by providing accurate predictions based on weather impacts on crop production, specifically focusing on Kharif and Rabi seasons. Through the application of fuzzy clustering and rule generation, the model classifies farmers' economic conditions and assesses the influence of weather on their production. This approach offers actionable insights to enhance economic resilience and mitigate distress in the agricultural sector.

Economic factors mediate the impact of drought on farmer suicides in India

The occurrence of farmer suicides has come to symbolize what is likely widespread and deep, but often hidden, agrarian distress. While this tragic phenomena has attracted tremendous attention in public discourse, its primary drivers remain poorly understood. In particular, climatic stress is often considered to be one such driver, but the mechanisms through which it triggers suicide remain disputed. Here, we provide evidence that factors related to agricultural income mediate the impact of climatic variability on farmer suicides in India. An analysis of temporal variation in suicide occurrence reveals that droughts, which impact farmers’ incomes, increase male farmer suicides by 19%, but have much smaller and insignificant impacts on other occupational or demographic groups. Moreover, whereas suicides by non-farmers are evenly distributed throughout the year, farmer suicides are concentrated during the agricultural season. These results help shed light on the mechanisms driving some of the most extreme and drastic social impacts of climatic variability and change.

IOT- Based Smart Plant Protection and Pest Control by Using Raspberry Pi

In economies heavily dependent on agriculture, such as India, the farming sector plays a crucial role, yet it faces various challenges that hinder its profitability and, unfortunately, contribute to farmer suicides. Pest attacks stand out as a significant factor contributing to the agricultural woes, causing substantial harm to crops. This research proposes a solution leveraging Raspberry Pi technology, incorporating a mathematical model known as Beta regression analysis. The model utilizes farm humidity and temperature as inputs to predict environmental conditions conducive to pest formation and attacks. The resultant Beta regression factor serves as a risk indicator for environmental health. Based on this factor, the system forecasts the likelihood of pest occurrences. By offering advance predictions of pest activity, farmers can strategically apply the right amount of pesticides, effectively mitigating the impact of pests on their crops. This proactive approach allows farmers to manage potential damage before it occurs, fostering a more sustainable and profitable farming environment. The innovative system outlined in this paper aims to empower farmers with accurate pest control predictions, thus enhancing their ability to navigate and overcome challenges in the agricultural landscape.

Empowering Farmers and Consumers Blockchain Innovations in Agricultural Supply Chains

In recent times, numerous instances have come to light concerning farmer suicides attributed to mounting debts and meager agricultural yields. This poses a significant predicament for countries like India, which are grappling with burgeoning populations and an escalating reliance on land for residential and industrial expansion. The diminishing availability of fertile land for farming necessitates heightened agricultural output to meet the nation's demands. Despite this increasing demand, farmers continue to grapple with formidable challenges. Concurrently, consumers are also grappling with concerns over escalating commodity prices and the quality of produce available in the market. They often find themselves compelled to purchase available goods at prices dictated by sellers. Unscrupulous practices such as black market activities, hoarding, and adulteration, perpetuated by intermediaries, serve to further inflate the costs of agricultural products. Although the desire for organic products is on the rise, the absence of a robust system to trace the various stages of organic cultivation and guarantee authenticity poses a significant hurdle. Perhaps the most glaring issue in the agricultural markets is the palpable disconnect that exists between farmers and consumers. We have introduced an innovative marketplace built upon blockchain technology, designed to foster collaborative farming practices between farmers and consumers. This platform allows farmers to showcase their potential crops and projected yields on a decentralized public ledger. Consumers, in turn, gain access to this information and can assess the credibility of farmers based on their past cultivation and supply records. This pioneering approach establishes a transparent and tamper-proof digital marketplace exclusively for agricultural products. Within this framework, a consensus is established through mutual agreement between farmers and consumers. This consensus enables consumers to financially support individual crops or entire fields, in exchange for a share of the farm's yield or a percentage of the market value profit. A rating system has been implemented to enhance the credibility of both farmers and consumers, drawing from their prior interactions and experiences within the agro-market domain.

What Do Farmers Need for Suicide Prevention: Considerations for a Hard-to-Reach Population.

Farmers have suicide rates much higher than the general population, with elevated mental health symptoms and high stress levels. Farmers are a hard-to-reach population due to occupational demands and a culture where conversations about mental health are often stigmatizing. This study explored ways to tailor suicide prevention strategies to unique characteristics of farmers by speaking with groups close to farmers who were open to discussing stress and suicide prevention: women married to farmers and agricultural Extension agents. Focus groups with women married to farmers (N=29) and interviews with agricultural agents from the university's local Cooperative Extension offices (N=13) from rural Georgia counties explored effective ways outreach and education about suicide prevention, mental health, and coping could be provided to farmers. Using a thematic analysis approach, qualitative coding was completed by two researchers (Cohens kappa=0.86), with initial codes collapsed into common themes. Four themes were identified: 1) Barriers due to the nature of farming, including time demands of farming and cultural stigma in help-seeking; 2) Acceptable messaging, including framing conversations as part of general health; 3) Make information accessible by making it brief, clear, and omnipresent through multiple media; and 4) Elements of effective information and education, including emphasizing "you're not alone" and connection, how to access supports and crisis services, educating people close to farmers, and motivating farmers by emphasizing that they could help another farmer with the information. Due to farmers' stoic identities and reluctance to admit mental health struggles, speaking with those close to farmers may help us better understand what is needed to tailor farmer suicide prevention strategies. The insights shared by participants suggest that culturally responsive outreach and education strategies, strengthening relationships through peer support, and gatekeeper training with specific trusted others are important ways to tailor suicide prevention strategies for this hard-to-reach group.

Farmer Suicides and Alcohol Consumption: An Autopsy Based Medicolegal Study of Suicide Methods and Risk Factors

The term "suicide" refers to the planned and intentional death of oneself. It is distinctly human, and homicide and suicide are the next three 1 most common causes of unnatural deaths after accidents. Farmer's suicide is mainly attributed to crushing financial pressures on farmers, farm product prices being too low, environmental problems, inadequate irrigation, increased use of chemical fertilizers, crop failure, etc. The current study was conducted at the Medical College in a rural region of central India, where most cases are brought from rural areas. The current study concluded that the majority of incidents affected young adults (20–40 years) who committed suicide by poisoning 72 cases (36.7%). In 16.32% (n=32) of the cases, the farmers had consumed alcohol at the time of the incident. Although 18.88% (n = 37) of the farmers' cases were addicted to alcohol.

The Framework For Adaptive Governance In Odisha: A Special Reference To Climate Change And Disaster Management

Odisha is known as a highly disaster-prone state. In the last half-decade, the state has faced more than a dozen disaster occurrences. Due to poor weather conditions, the coastal belts often remained in an alarming situation. Even though the state has witnessed so many small and big floods and bad air streaming over the years that resulted in crop failure, acute poverty, property damages, and human losses. Farmer suicide is also a related problem to it. Disaster has left the state poor, weaker but also helpless, and vulnerable. It badly affected the economic and administrative structure of state machinery. In the same way, the continuous disaster risk in coastal areas of Odisha has highly influenced untold human suffering. Some of the important regions of the coastal belt or the eastern cities of Odisha like Paradeep, Berhampur, Puri, and Balasore; whereas West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh will come under tremendous disaster every year. These regions are even under heavy alert in governmental planning to protect lives from possible disaster risks. Even from an economic point of view, it is not doubtful that Odisha is a poor state. Most people depend on agriculture and crop production as their life support system and their occupations rely on sea areas. And more than 30 percent of people still rely on government schemes under the Below Poverty Line (BPL). Hence any unprecedented disasters make possible countless properties, infrastructure, shelters, and lives and livelihood losses in the states. So, stress is placed on the government and governance process, to tackle disaster damage in Odisha with zero casualties. Institutional capacity building is a significant step with the help of stakeholders and local communities to enhance the maximum possibilities against regular disasters. Thus, the study will focus on the role of adaptive governance structure in countering climate change and disaster risks in Odisha. At the same time, it focuses on the resilience step to be taken in protecting lives, livelihoods, and properties in the hands of effective governance.

Agriculture Distress and Farmers' Suicide in Kerala in the Globalization Era

Liberalization, privatization, and globalization are to blame for Kerala's rural poverty and farmer suicides. Ineffective state and federal government policies, a lack of coordinated public investment, ongoing flooding, trade manipulation, false seeds and pesticides, a fluctuating price for agricultural products, growing cultivation expenses, an increase in droughts, as well as a loss of biodiversity are all factors that negatively affect agriculture. Though it receives criticism, the opposition to the current administration is strong in states with high rates of farmer suicide. A.R. Vasavi's Triple Crisis of Agriculture (1999), the widespread use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, as well as the inadvertent escalation of farmer debt, are the five primary debates that need to be addressed in order to investigate farmer suicides. As of now, a significant amount of government funding—1,69,6718 crores in 2017–18 and 97,3729 crores in the 12th five-year plan—was allocated to the agriculture sector. However, the state of farming and agrarian hardship has not much improved. H+owever, the rate of agriculturalists' concern dramatically increased. The price of the cash crop products grown in Kerala—pepper, coffee, and rubber—is significantly impacted by free trade agreements with ASEAN. Farmer's suicide has a significant relationship with these factors as well as extreme climate change along with, the heavy burden of debt, marginalization of land, etc.

Impact of Globalization and Multinational Corporations on Farmer Suicides in India: An Overview, Effects, Strategies and Policies

ABSTRACT The tragic rise of farmer suicides in India brought to light some of the high social and ecological costs associated with globalization and unsustainable agriculture. The study analyzes the impact of globalization and MNCs on farmer suicides and suggests strategies and policies. The crucial findings show regressive agricultural policies, output declines, insufficient credit support, private parties’ intervention, land fragmentation, and the high cost of cultivation due to the privatization of the seed sector that led to worst debt traps among other factors as major contributors to this turmoil. This research underlines the ongoing efforts in understanding and tackling these issues.

42.3 Systemic Impact of Farmer Suicides Caused by Climate Change and Its Effects on Their Families

42.3 Systemic Impact of Farmer Suicides Caused by Climate Change and Its Effects on Their Families

Farmer Suicides Among States Reporting Violent Deaths, 2003 - 2017.

Research suggests that farmer suicide rates are at least two-fold higher than the general population. In estimating rates, prior research considered suicide events among farmers together with farmworkers, fishing, and forestry occupations and included non-farming populations in the defined at-risk populations (i.e., denominators). In this study, we sought to define and differentiate farmer suicide decedents from other agricultural occupations, estimate U.S. farmer suicide rates, and evaluate rate time trends. Farmer suicide decedents were ascertained from the 36 states in the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) from 2003-2017 using NVDRS occupation data. Farmers were defined as persons responsible for day-to-day farm decisions and operations. An expert panel was convened to classify farmer occupations. Rates were calculated using Census of Agriculture-identified farmers as the rate denominator, and time trends were evaluated using regression. Due to a low number of female decedents, female farmer suicide rates were not estimated. We identified1,575 male farmer suicide decedents and 77 female farmer decedents from the NVDRS during the study period. Aggregated age-specific male farmer suicide rates were highest among farmers ages 65 years and older (22.0/100,000). Estimated suicide rates for male farmers were highest during 2003 (31.8/100,000) and lowest during 2005 (19.2/100,000). Trend analysis revealed a statistically significant 2.4% annual percent change (APC) in rates over the 15-year study period. Suicide rates among male farmers showed evidence of an increase from 2003-2017. Farmer suicide rates parallel the rates of the U.S. population; thus, farmer suicide remains a public health concern.

Let it out: A digital communication campaign to reduce suicide and mental health stigma in Kentucky farmers

Given the disproportionately high suicide rate of farmers in Kentucky and the unique cultural needs of farmers, a coalition was created to reduce the stigma of seeking help for mental health. A targeted communications campaign was developed to provide information to farmers at risk. This paper describes the development and launch of the campaign, including formative research, message development, campaign concepts, deployment of the campaign, and initial results. Events, traditional advertising, and social and digital media campaigns provided targeted brand awareness. Initial reception to the campaign was positive, especially with TV and radio watch- and listen-through rates and website traffic. The campaign requires expanded messaging and tactics and new partnerships to influence farmers. Practical and theoretical implications include the future use of paid digital strategies to confidentially influence farmers, additional research about culturally competent approaches toward subsets of farmers, and the amount of detail to provide about mental health conditions.