Bhopal: The years of economic reforms might have given farmers access to expensive and promising innovations but these reforms have not led to crop insurance, land irrigation or much required bank loans- one of the reasons compelling farmers to commit suicide in Madhya Pradesh.
This is a part of conclusion of a research paper ‘Farmer Suicides in Madhya Pradesh’ done by Agro Economic Research Center of Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University, Jabalpur. The study states that owing to international factors farmers were forced to turn to high cost seeds, fertilizers and pesticides necessitating larger loans.
In addition there has been minimal financial support from the government for marginal and small farmers forcing them to turn to money lenders who charge them up to 20 to 36% interest. Consequently, farmers often sign away the title to their land as collateral.
Despite tall claims from government, only 16 per cent of farmers’ who committed suicide were found to have borrowed from institutional sources. The study says that both small and large farmers borrowed relatively higher proportion from the non-institutional (money-lender, micro-financers and traders) sources compared to institutional sources. Accessibility to institutional borrowing is relatively more for large farmers.
The research states that 67 per cent borrowed for farming purpose while 33 per cent for non-farming purpose. The study also revealed that income from agriculture reduced in the year 2014-15. The average income from farming stands at Rs 54,250 a year.
The report cited that 826 farmers committed suicide in MP in 2015. Maximum 150 in Rewa, followed by Jhabua with 104 and Dindori where 71 farmers committed suicide. On the basis of maximum number of farmers’ suicide; Rewa, Jhabua, Dindori, Umaria, Shivpuri, Barwani, Alirajpur, Satna, Panna, Jabalpur and Bhopal districts were considered as hotspot of farmers’ suicide in the state.
The study of after affect of farmers’ suicides concludes that 40 per cent of the families lost their only earning member. In 36 per cent of the cases the land was sold and 32 per cent of the children had to stop going to the school after the incident.
Surprisingly the study focused on social causes of suicides that states extra-marital affairs as the biggest reason for suicides. While investigating farming related reasons study maintains that maximum number of suicides because of quarrel between the victims and others. The study also dismisses indebtedness as a major reason for suicides.
How the research was done
50 families of suicide victims were interviewed from 49 villages of 12 blocks from Rewa district. 150 farmers (18.16%) that committed suicide in MP were from Rewa. The questionnaire was designed to collect information about family size, education level of the victim household, cropping pattern, size of land holdings, source of irrigation, cost and returns from crop cultivation etc.
The second section dealt with information regarding causes of suicide with special focus on type of credit, extent of indebtedness, cropping strategies after the suicide and suggestions for preventing farmers’ suicide. The primary data related to study was collected in 2015-16. The secondary data on district wise farmers’ suicide cases was collected for 2003-04 to 2014-15.
Suggestions based on study
Suggestions (based on number of respondents answers) given to prevent suicides in future includes compensation for crop loss should at least meet input costs (62%), supply of better quality inputs of cultivation of crops (58%), increase MSP for all crops (54%), increase employment opportunities at village level (52%). The respondents also said that suicides would stop if insurance scheme be reached at individual level (46%).
