Financial burdens caused by climate change and government polices have led to a rise in the number of suicides among Indian agricultural workers. The latest report published earlier this week, said 5,563 agricultural labourers committed suicide last year and the number of people killing themselves in the industry increased by 9% from 2020, and up 29% from 2019. Most suicides were reported in Maharashtra, with 1,424 cases, followed by Karnataka with 999, and Andhra Pradesh with 584. Many believe the suicides expose the precarious state in which the country's struggling farmers and impoverished agricultural labourers currently find themselves.
Maharashtra state has suffered more than most. Over 600 farmers in the region of Marathwada, Maharashtra state, have died from suicide this year, according to official figures, with a majority of deaths blamed on rains that damaged thousands of hectares of agricultural land. The death toll could be even higher. This year, however, extreme rainfall events in Maharashtra damaged crops across 800,000 hectares, affecting farmers in 24 districts. Paddy, corn, soya, cotton, pigeon peas and banana crops and other vegetables have been heavily damaged. Some 65% of the population living in this region are solely dependent on agriculture and similar activities for their livelihood and vocational needs. With climate change having drastic effects on crop production, many are beginning to suffer.
"When it comes to agriculture, the sector is tethered to poverty and distress," Joginder Singh, a prominent farm union leader, explained. "The deaths are a reflection of the extremely fragile nature of farming communities and a multiple set of crises affects them."
Indra Shekhar Singh, an independent agriculture policy analyst, said, "Crop failures, rising inputs costs and low market prices often trap the farmers in a cycle of debt. Farmers haven't fully recovered from the lockdowns yet too." Problems are compounded by a lack of support from banks, especially in the face of inclement weather and market fluctuations. "Farmers are hence prompted to turn to local moneylenders who charge them a much higher rate of interest," Singh said.
India is an agrarian country where over 50% of the population is reliant on agriculture to make a living. According to government figures, two-thirds of India's population of 1.3 billion depends on farming for their livelihood. Apart from the rising farmers' suicides in vast swaths of the country, millions of mostly small-scale farmers have been squeezed by falling prices for their crops and the rising transportation and storage costs.
"Farmers withstand instability and an absence of security especially in Maharashtra," Darshan Pal Singh, leader of the Krantikari Kisan Union, told DW. "Their crop holdings are smaller than the farmers in Punjab. Debt cycles and erratic weather patterns like this year only add to their woes." "The magnitude of the problem is so big that no government has ever tried to understand the increasing burden on the farmers due to inflated prices of agricultural inputs," he added.
Farmer groups point out that the government decides the market rates and argue that it is failing to meet the Minimum Support Price (MSP) – the price at which the government is supposed to buy that crop back from farmers if the market price falls below it.
Ketki Singh, vice president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union's women's wing, maintains that many sales do not even cover the production costs, leaving farmers facing massive losses. "Climate change has acted as the last nail in the coffin by resulting in furthering of the uncertainties associated with the already uncertain monsoon system and hence agricultural production," Ketki pointed out.
"Can you imagine that nearly 30 people in the farming sector die by suicide daily?" she said.
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