Farmers' Suicides in India – Challenges & Solutions

India is an agrarian country with around 70% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. But farmers’ suicides in India is a worrying issue. As per the Central Government, despite a multi-pronged approach to improving income and social security of farmers, over 12,000 suicides were reported in the agricultural sector every year since 2013. Farmer suicides account for approximately 10% of all suicides in India. According to the data published by GoI, seven states account for 87.5% of total suicides in the farming sector in the country. The states are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra is the worst affected state. Ironically, Punjab, which benefited most from the Green Revolution, also presents a depressing picture of farmer’s suicides in India. Between 1995-2015, 4687 farmers’ suicides have been reported from the state of Punjab of which 1334 from one Mansa district alone. When compared to other developing economies, Indian agriculture heavily depend on monsoon, limiting crop diversification to a great extent. Thus, risks including weather, a week monsoon or even a delayed monsoon, poor soil fertility, pests, and plant diseases, perish ability of crops etc. are the major causes for the agrarian distress in India. Further, climate change and global warming cause frequent events of drought and flood which further add to their woes. The main objective of this article is to highlight the reasons behind farmers’ suicide in India and to provide solutions for the same. The reasons for farmers’ suicide are multi-faceted. These are as following