Economic perspective of farmers’ suicides – a symbol of agrarian crisis in Karnataka
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Date
2006
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UAS, Dharwad
Abstract
Growing number of farmers’ suicide cases in India and Karnataka points to a deeper
crisis in Indian agriculture. In Karnataka, 10,959 farmers committed suicide during 1996-
2000 and another 3000 during 2000-03 and the death toll is continues unabated. Therefore
different economic dimensions of suicide were probed in the present study involving 30
farmers who had committed suicide and 30 farmers who had not committed suicide. Data
pertaining to various farm business aspects of deceased farmers during 2003-04 were
collected. Findings of the study revealed that 90 per cent of the victim farmers were
practicing dry farming. Majority of the farmer victims were male farmers (90%). About 60
per cent of farmers suffered from psychological stress/mental duress arising out of the
agrarian distress. Debt burden, inter alia, was the major cause for the farmers’ suicide as
almost all the farmers in the study borrowed from one or the other source or from more than
one source. While the amount borrowed per suicide farmer was Rs. 1, 07,961 and that by the
non-suicide farmer was Rs. 42,063. High proportion of (73 %) farmers depended on
moneylenders for loans reflecting the limited reach of public financial agencies among
farmers. Farm financial ratio analyses like net capital ratio (NCR), Debt Asset Ratio (DAR)
brought forth the fact of agrarian crisis arising out of poor returns and heavy indebtedness.
Most of the non-institutional loans were diverted for non-agricultural, consumptive, distress
spending. The study suggests formulation of a comprehensive agrarian policy for the study
area as well as for similar agrarian regions. A multidisciplinary expert committee should be
constituted to study the problem of suicides and farm indebtedness; especially where private
moneylenders prevail. There is a need to prevent farmers’ suicides by social institutions such
as Ryot Jagruti Vedike rather than to undertake ad-hoc measures.