Private Money Lenders Research Articles

A Study on the Adaptation Strategies Followed by the Dryland Farmers during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract: The inadequate planning and preparation by governments before the sudden imposition of lockdowns to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic have inflicted a severe blow to India's economy, causing immense hardships, particularly to the working people and the informal rural economy. The peak of the Rabi crop harvesting season in March 2020 coincided with the nationwide lockdown, leading to significant losses for farmers in the north-western regions. The rural areas, heavily reliant on agriculture and allied sectors, faced disruptions in input availability, labor movement, and supply chains, impacting the livelihoods of nearly 50% of the workforce. This study focuses on the adaptation strategies employed by dryland farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka during the pandemic. The research explores various dimensions, including health and psychological adaptations, farming practices, financial adjustments, and marketing strategies. The findings reveal that farmers, facing dual challenges of health and economic crises, resorted to diverse adaptation measures to mitigate the impact. At the individual level, farmers prioritized precautionary measures, government regulations, and engaging in productive work to cope with anxiety. Families emphasized maintaining hygiene, avoiding discussions about the pandemic at home, and sharing financial difficulties equally. At the village level, preventive measures, social distancing in markets and agricultural operations, and making masks compulsory were widely adopted. In terms of farming adaptations, farmers faced disruptions in the availability of quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, leading to increased expenditures. Financial adaptations included increased borrowing from financial institutions and private money lenders, utilization of long-term savings, and involving family members in agricultural activities to reduce costs. Marketing strategies saw a shift towards selling to retailers and exploring mobile agricultural marketing, while some farmers faced challenges due to low prices and transportation issues. Despite the immense challenges, farmers exhibited resilience by implementing various adaptation strategies to protect themselves and their farming activities. The study underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of the impact of the pandemic on Indian farmers, addressing research questions related to adaptation strategies at different levels.

Futile agricultural practices of Rayalaseema farmers a pathway to financial indebtedness

More than 60 percent of Indian Population depends for their livelihood on Agriculture i.e. 60 percent of workforce is concentrated on the Agriculture in India. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our country is approximately 3.17 lakh crores with a growth rate of 8.95 percent. These GDP is the outcome of 100 per cent of Indian working population effort, surprisingly 60 percent of the population who is employed in the agricultural sector is contributing only 18.8 percent of the GDP and the remaining 82 percent of GDP is produced by the other sectors of workforce. This situation reveals the fact that majority of the workforce in India is being wasted; they are concentrating on the less productive activities which is being neglected. This situation has to change in order to achieve inclusive growth. Farmer’s efforts in this area are being neglected. So, there should be a change in the practices, technology up gradation and implementation methods which are bearing no fruits either to the country or to the farmers themselves. The present study has made an attempt to enquire the support provided by the Agricultural Extension Officers to the Rayalaseema Agricultural farmers and evaluate the awareness levels of farmers about e platforms for selling crops. An average farmer spends major portion of his life in the agriculture, in return they are not getting adequate remuneration in any form. In addition the farmers are acquiring huge amount of debt. In order to clear these huge accumulated debts the farmers are selling their lands to private money lenders and businessmen’s and forcing themselves to vacate their village in search of wage labors to feed their families. The data required for the study have been collected from both primary and secondary sources.

Assessment of women farmers’ credit needs in imbulpe ds division in Sri Lanka

The study was conducted to identify the role of women farmers’ credit needs, using Imbulpe (Divisional Secretariat) DS Division in Sri Lanka. As the sample size of study 238 women farmers were selected from seven selected (Grama Niladhari) GN divisions of the study area. This study was conducted to identify the areas and level of credit needed by women farmers. And also, the agricultural credit sources of was identified. Women farmers were selected by using the simple random sampling method. Questionnaire Survey was used as the data collection method from March to July 2019. Descriptive statistics was used for the data analyzing process and the result showed that, 59.7 % of the women farmers were observed within the middle ages (40-59 years), most of them were married, and 4-5 members within their family. 64.3 % of women farmers were studied up to secondary level education. Majority of the women farmers were noted that they need credit facilities for the application of agrochemicals and fertilizers. In Addition to that, utilization of modern farming technologies, transportation & marketing of agricultural products and purchasing improved seeds & livestock related credit neediness most important for them. And also, they were showed a less interest regarding the credit neediness for pre-planting activities, irrigation facilities and harvesting activities. Most of the respondents were indicated high level of credit neediness for the application of agrochemicals and fertilizers and utilization of modern farming technologies while moderate and low level of agricultural credit neediness regarding the pre-planting activities, irrigation facilities and harvesting activities within the study area. Majority of the respondents were showed savings from the previous agricultural earnings and other family member or fellow women as their major credit sources of agricultural activities. Private money lenders act as the least important credit source for agricultural activities in the study area. JEL CODE: Q1, Q12

Access to Institutional Credit by Farmers in Eastern India

The supply of institutional credit plays an important role in promoting agricultural growth and also saving the farmers from the clutches of private moneylenders who charge exorbitantly high rates of interest and force them to live in perpetual debt trap. There has been a phenomenal increase in the flow of institutional credit to agriculture in the recent years but this has been quite uneven between regions. As of 2018–2019, the Southern Region had the highest share (43.0 %) in the institutional credit followed by Northern Region (21.0 %), Central Region (13.6 %), Western Region (12.0 %), Eastern Region (9.0 %) and North Eastern Region (0.9 %) respectively. Despite so much talk about the need for green revolution in Eastern India, the institutional credit to agriculture in almost all the Eastern and North Eastern states has been very poor. Based on various standard criteria such as credit–deposit ratio, credit absorption capacity, level of agricultural diversification and untapped potentials for higher agricultural growth and poverty reduction, farmers in the eastern states deserve a better deal in terms of access to institutional credit. Besides, the article explodes the myth of low credit absorption of farmers in Eastern India.

INFORMAL FINANCE IN SETTINGS OF POVERTY: ESTABLISHING AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH

Entrepreneurship is viewed as a major tool in the effort to address poverty in emerging economies. Yet financing for such entrepreneurial ventures remains a major challenge. To date, most research on financing of entrepreneurial ventures among those in poverty in emerging economies has focused on formal financial tools such as microfinancing. However, a far larger financing tool employed in practice is informal financing. Such financing takes the shape of loans by family/friends/neighbors, private money lenders, or rotating savings groups. Very little is known about how these finance tools affect entrepreneurship. This article reviews the existing literature on informal finance in emerging economies and then develops a rich research agenda for scholars on informal finance in emerging economies and its role in entrepreneurship.

Do Institutional Transplants Succeed? Regulating Raiffeisen Cooperatives in South India, 1930–1960

The government in British-ruled India established cooperative banks to compete with private moneylenders in the rural credit market. State officials expected greater competition to increase the supply of low-cost credit, thereby expanding investment potential for the rural poor. Cooperatives did increase credit supply but captured a small share of the credit market and reported net losses throughout the late colonial and early postcolonial period. The article asks why this experiment did not succeed and offers two explanations. First, low savings restricted the role of social capital and mutual supervision as methods of financial regulation in the cooperative sector. Second, a political-economic ideology that privileged equity over efficiency made for weak administrative regulation.

Informal financing choice in SMEs: do the types of formal credit constraints matter?

We examine how SMEs choose alternative external finance when their access to formal finance is constrained in an emerging market context. We find that when constraints to formal credit for an SME increase (decrease) over time, the firm's behavior changes accordingly by selectively shifting toward (away from) certain types of informal credit. Specifically, when a firm avoids formal credit because of perceived difficulties in application process, it seeks alternatives from the owner’s family and friends and private money lenders. When the interest rate is perceived to be too high, the firm prefers trade credit and the owner’s family and friends. Trade credit appears to be the most likely substitute of formal finance for firms with bad credit history. Lastly, firms that are denied short-term loans may find emergency funding from private money lenders. Our findings suggest that certain types of informal credit may be more appealing than formal credit in certain cases.

Agricultural Crisis and Farmers Suicides in India

Agricultural sector is the main income for the rural people in India. It plays a significant role in their life. In India, small and marginal farmers account for 70%, according to the 2011 census of the Government of India. These small and marginal farmers took credit from banks and private money lenders. The non-repayment of credit led to an agricultural crisis and farmers’ suicide. This study focused on the reasons that caused such a disaster. The study rests on a review of the literature which was extracted from journals, reports, and newspapers from 2004 to 2019. The review identified the following reasons for the agricultural crisis and farmer’s suicides- poverty, indebtedness, crop failures, distress, lack of awareness on new technologies, inadequate debt, marketing of produce, the high interest of non-institutional credit, and depletion of water levels. The article concluded noting that -the government had to shift its focus from industries to agriculture and shift its agricultural policies from short-term to long- term ones.

Impact of different sources of credit in creating extreme farmer distress in India

PurposeAccording to the published report by the National Sample Survey 2014 the data says that the incidence of indebtedness among households in the rural areas of Maharashtra, India, is almost twice that of other rural places in India. Around 64 percent of rural households are indebted in Maharashtra as against 31 percent other households in India. The purpose of this paper is to examine which source of credit is creating more distress among the farmers. Further the researchers also wanted to find out the reasons why the farmers choose private moneylender over the formal financial institutions.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the objective, the authors used the mixed method methodology. The qualitative study was done using the ethnography approach .In depth interviews were conducted and coded accordingly to find out the themes. The interviews conducted were semi structured and had open ended questions in it, followed by a structured questionnaire. Different statistical tests were also applied on the responses obtained from the questionnaire to check the reliability and validity of the interviews. This methodology gave a robustness to the findings of the study.FindingsThe results show that sources of loan play a major role in causing farmer distress in Maharashtra. The findings also show major reasons like grapevine bureaucracy, lengthy documentation, etc. as the major reasons for choosing private lenders over the formal financial institutions. The most interesting finding of the study was a phenomena observed during the field study. The borrowers first borrow from financial institutions for their credit needs, when they fail to repay the debt borrowed they again borrow money from the private money lenders and with this borrowed money they try repaying a part of the old existing loan in order to make themselves eligible for the next loan cycle.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of the study is that due to time constraint only two districts with high number of farmer suicide could be visited. Given more time and fund a comparative study can be done among different states of India.Practical implicationsThis study will help the policy makers in identifying the real cause of farmer distress. The motive behind the policies made by the government is very noble but the implementation of these policies is inadequate and without a strong research base. The paper will be able to highlight how much the state intervention is required at multiple levels in order to ensure that the benefits reaches to those who deserve it.Social implicationsIt is imperative that we have yet not realized the gravity of the situation where people belonging from a community which is so essential to the economy are killing themselves because of lack of money. This is not just about the fact that the people who give us food are unable to access food themselves.Originality/valueThe paper contains significant information with regard to indebtedness. It focuses on the issue troubling the authorities the most. It provides the ground realities of the incidence of indebtedness in Maharashtra, one of the most distressed states of India. Lot of studies have been done in the past but very few studies have used mixed methodology to study this incidence of debt among the farmers of Maharashtra. This study also unveils a new phenomena of borrowing happening among the farmers of Maharashtra.

Understanding the Financial Lives of Nepali Immigrants in Bangalore, India

This paper examines the financial practices of a low-income, Nepali immigrant group living in Bangalore, India. Members of this group often experience adverse circumstances that lead to erratic incomes and unexpected expenditures. However, they find themselves squeezed between the stringent requirements of the formal banking system and the predatory practices of private money lenders. Through observational research and interviews of members of this group, the study attempts to understand how they manage their financial needs. Critical to achieving their goals is an informal, community-based saving and lending scheme called a chit fund. To gain insights into a chit fund’s operations, we track two chit funds managed by the Nepali immigrant group’s local leader. We examine how these funds work, why members participate in them, and how the community addresses default risk by fund members. Our findings lead to two important learnings. First, informal chit funds serve as a means to save and borrow money, which helps stabilize and manage financial uncertainties in their lives. Second, the informal chit fund arrangement succeeds because of mutual trust, reciprocity among members, and the community leader’s position of influence. The learnings from understanding the operations of chit funds can help policymakers adopt a more effective and inclusive financial system that caters to millions of unbanked households.

Trends in Agricultural Credit

Agriculture sector is playing a significant role in the development of rural areas in our country. Agriculture is the main occupation and still is a strong means of livelihood and there is necessity for ensuring sustainability in these livelihoods. Agriculture and allied sectors contribute nearly 22% of GDP of India and further 9.93% contribution in total export of India. Rural indebtedness, agricultural distress, dependency on private money lenders, and farmers suicides are common features surrounding Indian Agriculture. For more than 100 years RBI and Central Government have been making efforts to enhance institutional credit in rural areas particularly to assist agricultural operations. But economic survey (GOI) 2010 shows that out of 27 public sector banks, only 14 sector banks achieved the agricultural credit target of 18% agricultural credit and in case of private sector banks only 8 achieved the target of 18% for lending to agriculture in 2009. In order to increase productivity a huge investment on agriculture is essential. Farmers need more capital in order to buy qualitative seeds, agricultural implements, power tiller, adoption of latest technology. But Indian agriculturist is not only capital scared but also faces natural vagaries in addition to unfavorable voltaile marketing conditions. Hence he needs credit for the agricultural expansion programmes. Credit enables the agriculturist to extend control over his ownership of resources. The much spoken debt relief and waiver only touched the rich agriculturist leaving small and marginal farmers not caring. Further debt waiver and relief a most ambitious programme did not succeeded as expected and programme could not be carried out successfully because of faulty implementation.

Appraisal of the socio-economic status of fishers among the different sectors in Kerala, south-west coast of India

The present study assessed the levels of literacy, health, income and livelihood security of fisher households across different fisheries sectors in Kerala. Primary data collected across 567 households during January to December, 2011were used for the study. The general trend in Kerala shows that majority of the fisherfolk were of the age group 36-55, with a small family norm and high literacy rate. The marine capture sector has the highest annual income in comparison with other sectors but registered higher indebtedness. While the highest income from non-fishery activity was from labour followed by business, other sectors and agriculture. The study revealed that the fishers spend their major share of income towards food expenditure. Inspite of the income from various sources, majority of the households are swamped with debts which make them to rely on private money lenders for sustaining their living standards. The study is a cross sectoral analysis of the fisher households in Kerala and provides a base for implementing developmental plans for the betterment of the fishing community.

Acceptance Speech for World Marxian Economics Award (IV)

June 17, 2016Ladies and gentleman, delegates and students,I feel honored to receive this award. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the other awardees. I do not however see this award as a celebration of me as an individual. Every individual is constituted by a certain set of influences, by people around him with whom he shares his thoughts. I have been fortunate that in the university where I teach, namely the Jawaharlal Nehru University, I have been able to interact with a large number of outstanding colleagues and students. I am grateful to them and this award belongs as much to them as to me.I think when we talk about globalization, there is only one aspect of it that is usually discussed, namely, the opening of doors by different countries to the free flow of commodities and capital. There is however another aspect that is scarcely ever talked about, namely, the withdrawal of the State from its role of supporting, promoting and protecting petty production, including peasant agriculture. As a matter of fact, with the pursuit of neoliberal policies, everywhere in the world we find that the profitability of petty production has come down, including of peasant agriculture, which undermines its viability. We have effectively seen what Marx had called a process of primitive accumulation of capital in the form of a squeeze imposed on the incomes of petty producers.I had the good fortune to work at the Kerala State Planning Board between 2006 and 2011. When I was there, we made a simple calculation. Suppose we look at the entire traditional fishing sector and assume that every fisherman gets the statutory minimum daily wage fixed by the government, then it turns out that the sector will have a negative surplus. This basically means that the entire traditional fisheries sector survives because the fishermen accept a daily earning that is below the statutory minimum daily wage.That is the kind of the squeeze we find on petty production. In peasant agriculture, the impact of this squeeze has been evident in the very large number of peasant suicides in India, over two hundred thousand in the last fifteen years, which shows no sign of coming down. Under the neoliberal policies being pursued, there has been a withdrawal of government subsidies which were being given earlier, resulting in a rise in costs, including in the cost of credit, and this has happened even as the earlier system of government price support for peasants' crops has been dismantled. Banks, including even the nationalized banks which still constitute the dominant segment of Indian banking, no longer provide subsidized institutional credit to the peasants which they are statutorily required to do. The peasants therefore are forced to borrow from a newly created class of private moneylenders who give them loans at exorbitant rates of interest.As the viability of petty production, and of peasant agriculture in particular, is undermined by neoliberalism, many peasants continue to stay on where they are; but many flee to cities in the hope of finding a job. Such jobs however are not being created in adequate numbers. According to the National Sample Survey (NSS), the growth in employment, in the sense of decent or proper employment, is not large enough to absorb the natural increase in the workforce, let alone the displaced petty producers flocking into urban India in search of work. We find therefore, under neo-liberalism, a swelling of casual employment, intermittent employment, and disguised unemployment.All of this actually constitutes a swelling of the ranks of the reserve army labor, which in turn means that even the real wages of organized workers do not increase. As a result the entire working people, by which I mean the peasants, the petty producers, the agricultural laborers, and the urban blue-collar workers including even the organized workers, experiences an absolute decline in its standard of life. …

Farmer Suicides on Rise in India: Causes and Consequences

Suicide is caused by many factors and there is empirical evidence to believe that this phenomenon could be a contagion in India, where farmers are committing copycat suicides. Rising farmer suicides on erratic monsoon, outstanding loans, rising debt, low crop yield, poor procurement rate of crops and successive crop failure. According to the IB, the main reason of farmers ’suicides can be attributed to both natural and manmade factors. While natural factors like uneven rains, hailstorm, drought and floods adversely affect crop yield, the manmade factors, i.e. pricing policies and inadequate marketing facilities result in post-yield losses. Consequences of rural indebtedness are disastrous. Economically, rural indebtedness has resulted in the extreme poverty of the farmers (esp. marginal and small farmers) The all-India report titled ‘Spate of Cases of Suicide by Farmers ’emphasizes how government relief packages are of limited use as they do not address the plight of farmers who borrow from private moneylenders. Whether the environment is favourable or unfavourable, farmers always faces losses. Due to continuation of this condition and failure on state and central government in taking effective measures to protect and help to farmers to overcome on this barriers. Most of them became bankrupt and burden of heavy repayment of Debts and other family responsibilities forces them to commit suicides. It also suggests creation of alternative source of income for farmers by way of non-farming activities like dairy, poultry, fisheries etc.

Some Elementary Problems of Business Running in Georgia

The purpose of this paper is to identify some trivial reasons of bankruptcy of business in Georgia. One of the main reasons of existing failures is business startups are related to lack of knowledge of business principles and of the negligence of their usage in practice. There is analysis of the existing problems of the people, which lost their property because they took a loan from the bank and (mostly) from private money lenders without any real justification.The analysis shows that in spite of well-known, simplest requirements for successful business activity most of Georgian business beginners have ignored them. The paper shows that to avoid failure and bankruptcy of business is possible only on the basis of deep and broad study of the real conditions of business activity and gives several practical advices for business startups. The paper also offers short program of business education in order to assist business beginners to get acquainted with the most elementary knowledge of business activity.

Informal Credit, Usury, or Support? A Case Study forVietnam

The informal credit market remains an important source of finance for the poor inVietnam. Yet, little if anything is known about the impact of informal loans on poverty and inequality, and theVietnamese government has no policies towards the informal credit market. In the present study paper, we found that the effect of credit from friends and relatives on per capita expenditure is positive but not statistically significant. Meanwhile, the effect of credit from private moneylenders on per capita expenditure is positive and statistically significant. Borrowing from private moneylenders increases per capita expenditure of households by around 15%. Further, it reduced the poverty incidence of borrowers by around 8.5 percentage points in 2006 and significantly decreases the poverty gap index and the poverty‐severity index. Borrowing from private moneylenders also reduces expenditure inequality, albeit at a very small magnitude.

Socio-Economic Status of Milk Producers of Primary Milk Societies: A Case Study

Dairy development program plays a vital role in the socio-economic conditions of the rural people. Higher demand for milk means adding larger number of high-breed milk producing cattle to the milk population. A large part of this cattle population is owned and reared in rural areas. Thus, small marginal farmers and landless agricultural laborers play a very important role in milk production of the country. Dairy farming can also be centered where the demand for milk is high. The co-operative movement for milk was started in India in the last decade of the nineteenth century with two objectives in view-protecting the farmers from the hands of the private money lenders and improving their economic condition. This paper endeavors to understand the socio-economic status of milk producers of primary milk societies. To study socio-economic status of milk producers, 90 milk supplying members from seven dairy primary societies out of fourteen societies having membership of 1027 were considered. Primary data were collected through schedule questionnaire, for the purpose of conducted survey only milk supplying members were selected by way of random sampling method. The primary data is processed by using SPSS package for drawing necessary results. The empirical results show that majority of members are above poverty line and 55.6% of them earn between Rs.5000 to 10000 p.m. The study also reveals that nearly 77.8% of the respondents are happy with the dairy business but 60% of them responded that new generation of their family should not continue with the same business. This paper also attempts to focus on a discussion on members perception of quality of services provided by the dairy milk societies in study area. The various aspects considered in the study are: opinion about satisfaction from various services provided by dairy societies, extension services like training, advisory service, education tour, etc..

Agricultural Credit in India – Innovations in Design and Delivery of Products and Services

The concept of bringing farmers together in a voluntary group was initiated in 1982 through the Farmers’ Club Programme. This institutional innovation has received a renewed focus from 2007–08 onwards. Nevertheless, access to farm credit sector has not been easy and adequate. In this paper, innovative approaches to improve agricultural credit flow have been captured from the secondary sources and analysed using compound annual growth rate and descriptive analytical tools. The share of private moneylenders has decreased with the institutional agencies making inroads into the rural scene. The structure of the sources of credit has witnessed a clear shift wherein the scheduled commercial banks and RRBs have emerged as the major sources of direct and indirect institutional credit to agriculture in recent years. The SHG-bank linkage programme, Kisan Credit Card, Farmers Clubs, Joint Liability Groups and Interest Subvention Scheme have been promoted to supplement rural credit delivery effectively and have also shown a significantly increasing growth rates over the years. In addition, there are a number of other small innovations that have taken place across the spectrum of agricultural credit markets. All these would eventually contribute to making sustainable access to agricultural finance leading towards a path for prosperity of farming community, especially the small and vulnerable farm households.

Substitutes or Complements?: Formal and Informal Credit Demand by Maize Farmers in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana

This study examines credit demand by maize farmers and analyses factors influencing their use of informal and formal credits. The analysis is based on data collected from a survey of 590 maize farmers in seven districts of Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana during May-July 2010. Descriptive statistics, probit and bivariate probit models were used to analyse the data. The study revealed informal credit sources for maize farmers as relatives and friends, traders and private money lenders. Maize traders are major players in the informal credit market followed by agricultural input sellers. Among the formal sources rural banks are the most prominent. Regional location, Gender, engagement in other economic activities and the level of agricultural commercialisation were observed to be factors that influence farmers’ demand for informal credit. In addition to these factors, farmer years of education and proximity to financial institution influence demand for formal credit. The result of the bivariate probit suggests that formal and informal credits are not necessarily perfect substitutes but they complement each other to provide credit needs of farmers in maize production.

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.