COL Report: Why is India a world leader in farmer suicides?

Since the beginning of this year, six farmers in the Wayanad district of the Indian state of Kerala, have committed suicide. The suicides appear to be part of a widespread problem that the government is failing to adequately address.

NEW DELHI, INDIA (Catholic Online) - Across the state, 13 farmers have taken their own lives in the month of November alone. The underlying cause appears to be economic distress.

The reports are particularly disconcerting because the suicides are occurring in a state that has one of the highest literacy rates in the country. Additionally, the state of Kerala is known for high quality healthcare, and the relatively high living standards enjoyed by its people.

It is thought that between the years 1997 and 2005 an astounding figure of 11,516 farmers were reported as having committed suicide. Across all of India, 166,304 farmers committed suicide between 1997 and 2006.

India is one of the world's most populous countries with over 1 billion people. Despite that, the numbers of farmers committing suicide remain disproportionately high. 

A full 90 percent of the suicides in Kerala between 2000 and 2007 were from the Wayanad district alone. This is precisely because the Wayanad district is heavily dependent on agriculture.

The farmers are being particularly hard hit by a perfect storm of distressing factors. Falling prices for crops, rising prices for fertilizers, and increasing interest rates are all coming together to ruin the lives of farmers and their families. Unable to get help, and seeing no way forward for themselves or their families, some farmers tragically choose to end their lives.

As market values for many of the predominant crops, especially ginger, continued to fall, experts believe that the distress will only worsen. 

Some government officials are taking note and they're beginning to examine the situation in detail. Regional ministers have announced that they will be examining the roles of banks and the structure of the loans given to farmers.

Many farmers find that obtaining credit from government banks is difficult, especially as future returns continue to drop. Unable to get loans, they have to turn to private lenders who charge higher rates of interest. If anything goes wrong, such as falling crop prices or increases in the prices of fertilizer or equipment, or if the crop fails partially or altogether, farmers cannot get relief from the banks.

The unsympathetic banks are subsequently refusing to renegotiate with distressed farmers and seizing valuable land instead.

The government has cobbled together some relief plans for distressed farmers, but those plans are being poorly implemented. Not every farmer is covered, in fact entire regions are still without any form of government provided recourse. The root cause of this appears to be bureaucratic inefficiency. India suffers from widespread bureaucratic slowdowns which can prevent the timely delivery of welfare and other aid packages to distressed farmers.

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While the government appears to be paying some attention to the problem, the band-aid solutions that have been attempted to date are just that, and they are not curing the underlying cause of the suicide epidemic across the country. Until government officials become more efficient at implementing relief measures for farmers, or the fortunes of agriculture change for the better, India will continue to bear the dubious distinction of the world's leader in farmer suicides.

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