Cotton growing States lead the list of farm suicides

Cotton growing States continue to top the list of farmers’ suicides in 2014 too. The five States of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, which grow the bulk of the fibre , witnessed 4,773 out of the of 5,650 suicides by farmers.

Small and marginal farmers formed majority of the deaths. About 73 per cent of all suicides (4,095) occurred in this category, hinting at the severe stress faced by the farmers in this segment.

The National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB) has come out with the list of Accidental and Suicide Deaths in 2014. Farm suicides constituted 4.3 per cent of 1.31 lakh suicides in the country last year. Even as NCRB comes out with this data, farmers continue to commit suicide mainly in the Southern State of Karnataka, where the growing agrarian distress has claimed as many as 70 lives in the past one month. Ironically, close to half of these suicides have happened in the irrigated tracts of Cauvery basin mainly in Mandya and Mysuru districts, where sugarcane is the main cash crop.

NCRB, in its report, has cited two major reasons for farmers’ deaths – ‘bankruptcy or indebtedness’ and ‘family problems’.

About 66 per cent of all suicides happened in the age group of 30-60 years, followed by those in the age group of 18-30 years with 23 per cent.

Various headers Though the total number of farmers’ suicides had halved in 2014 from about 11,770 the previous year, some governments might have shifted some ‘suicides’ to other headers.

Critics felt that the reduction in numbers this time is not because any improvement in the lot of farmers but because of jugglery of numbers. “The numbers put out by the Bureau are only the tip of the iceberg. It puts suicides in Punjab at 22 in 2014, while independent reports point to over 500 suicides. Some States are reducing the numbers by putting them under different categories,” Vijoo Krishnan, Joint Secretary of All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), told BusinessLine.

Vijoo, who has just returned from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, said that the government was in denial mode while the magnitude of the agrarian crisis was very serious.

Monsoon & money MS Swaminathan, considered to be an authority on Indian agriculture, said that monsoon and markets were the two important factors for farmers to succeed. “There is no proper coping mechanism to farmers when the two factors failed them. There is no proper insurance to insulate them when monsoon and markets fail,” he points out.

He felt that farming needs policy support to make economics of farming viable for farmers.

The Karnataka government has recently announced constitution of a vision group under Swaminathan to suggest ways to boost the sector growth and make farming economically viable.

Kurbur Shantakumar, President of the Karnataka Cane Growers Association, blamed the State government for not being serious enough to take timely and adequate measures to curb this disturbing trend. “We don't know what to do,” he said, adding that the recent surge in farmers' suicides has baffled him. Pushed into financial crisis due to a combination of factors such as poor realisation for their produce, delayed payments and crop failures caused by poor rains, farmers are seen resorting to such extreme steps across Karnataka in recent months.

“There would be a serious crisis, if the Government continues to show its negligence,” Shantakumar warned.

NCRB data Maharashtra topped the list with 2,568 (farm) suicides or 45 per cent of all the 5,650 suicides. This was followed by Telangana with 898 (16 per cent), Madhya Pradesh 826 (14.6 per cent), Karnataka 321 and Andhra Pradesh with 160. As many as 443 farmers ended their lives in Chhattisgarh.

Of the total unnatural deaths of 5,650, women constituted 472, with 147 women farmers ending lives in Telangana alone.

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