KEY TRENDS
• Farmers' suicide as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6% in 1996, 16.3% in 2002, 14.4% in 2006, 13.7% in 2009 and 11.9% in 2010#
• In 2010, farmers as a category were the biggest victims of suicides in India i.e. 11.9%, to be followed by those employed in private jobs (7.8%), unemployed (7.5%), students (5.5%), self-employed in business-activity (5.3%) and those in government jobs (1.4%)#
• Total number of suicides committed by farmers in India was 13729 in 1996, 17971 in 2002, 17060 in 2006, 17368 in 2009 and 15964 in 2010#
• Out of a total of 134599 suicide victims in 2010, 41.1 percent (i.e. 55329) are self-employed#
• Total no. of suicide committed by the self-employed in 2010 is 55329 out of which 28.9 percent are farmers (i.e. 15964)#
• During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 1,66,304 farmers committed suicide in India*
• Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006*
• Farmers, who committed suicides, were growing cash crops in dry regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka) **
• Farm suicides took place in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chhattisgarh*
• Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides**
# National Crime Records Bureau, http://ncrb.nic.in/
http://ncrb.nic.in/ADSI2010/table-2.11.pdf
http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf
http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2006/Table-2.11.pdf
http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI2002/atable%202.11.pdf
http://ncrb.nic.in/adsi/data/ADSI1996/table-5s.pdf
* Nagaraj, K (2008): Farmers’ Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf
** Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): ‘Human Security and the Case of Farmers’ Suicides in India: An Exploration’, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on ‘Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective’ (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf
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According to the report titled Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India-2010, which is produced by the National Crime Records Bureau, http://ncrb.nic.in/:
• Every hour 15 people committed suicide in India during 2010.
• 1 in every 5 suicides is committed by a Housewife.
• Total 3,84,649 accidental deaths were reported in the country during the year 2010.
• It is observed that social and economic causes have led most of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and personal causes have mainly driven females to end their lives.
• Nearly 70.5% of the suicide victims were married males while 67.0% were married females.
• 26.3% of the suicide victims were primary educated and 22.7% were middle educated while 19.8% of victims of suicide were illiterate. Self employed category accounted for 41.1% of suicide victims in 2010. It comprised 11.9% engaged in Farming/ Agriculture activities, 5.3% engaged in Business and 3.0% Professionals.
• 41.1% of suicide victims were self employed while only 7.5% were un-employed.
• Suicides because of ‘Family Problems’ (23.7%) and ’Illness’ (21.0%) combined accounted for 44.7% of total Suicides.
• West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicide victims (accounting for 11.9%) in 2008 & 2009 and second highest in 2010 (accounting for 11.9%).
• West Bengal (11.9%), Andhra Pradesh (11.8%), Tamil Nadu (12.3%), Maharashtra (11.8%) and Karnataka (9.4%) contributed 57.2% of total suicide victims.
• The highest number of Mass/Family Suicides cases were reported from Bihar (23) followed by Kerala (22) and Madhya Pradesh (21) and Andhra Pradesh (20) out of 109 cases.
According to National Crime Records Bureau's Accidental Death and Suicide (2009),
http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/suicides-09.pdf,
http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/snapshots.pdf,
http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-ADSI2009/table-2.11.pdf:
• More than one lakh persons (1,27,151) in the country lost their lives by committing suicide during the year 2009. This indicates an increase of 1.7% over the previous year's figure (1,25,017).
• The total number of suicides in the country during the decade (1999–2009) has recorded an increase of 15.0% (from 1,10,587 in 1999 to 1,27,151 in 2009).
• Self-employed category accounted for 39.8% of suicide victims in 2009. It comprised 13.7% engaged in Farming/Agriculture activities, 6.1% engaged in Business and 2.9% Professionals.
• 55.1% suicide victims in Mizoram were engaged in farming /agriculture activities in 2009. 29.6% suicide victims in Manipur were unemployed.
• Despite a fall in number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 as compared to 2008 in Maharastra (fallen by 930), the state continues to be number one in terms of farmers' suicides for the tenth year (2,872 suicides) as compared to the rest of the states.
• The number of suicides committed by farmers in 2009 was 17,368, which was a rise by 1,172 as compared to 2008.
• The growth in the number of suicides committed by the farmers has been 7 percent over the last year.
• In the year 2009, 1,27,151 persons committed suicides. Within a span of one year, suicide rate in the entire country has increased by 1.7 percent. During the last year, the total number of suicides committed was 1,25,017.
• In the year 2009, 348 persons committed suicides on an average every day, out of which 48 persons were farmers. In the year 2004, on an average 47 farmers committed suicides every day, which means one farmer committing suicide in every 30 minutes.
• Private and Public Sector personnel have accounted for 8.4% and 2.3% of the total suicide victims respectively, whereas students and un-employed victims accounted for 5.3% and 7.8% respectively.
• Government servants were 1.3% of the total suicide victims, whereas housewives (25,092) accounted for 54.9% of the total female victims and nearly 19.7% of total victims committing suicides.
• 40.9% of salaried and 39.0% of unemployed suicide victims were in the age–group 30-44 years.
• West Bengal has reported the highest number of suicides (14,648) accounting for 11.5% of total suicides followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500), Tamil Nadu (14,424), Maharashtra (14,300) and Karnataka (12,195) accounting for 11.4%, 11.3%, 11.2% and 9.6% respectively of the total suicides in the country.
• These 5 States together accounted for 55.1% of the total suicides reported in the country.
• 209 deaths at the national level under Mass/Family suicides consisting of 95 males and 114 females were reported as per the information available. 15 cities also did not furnish information.
• The maximum number of suicide victims was educated up to Middle level (23.7%). Illiterate and primary educated persons accounted for 21.4% suicide victims and 23.4% respectively.
• Only 3.1% suicide victims were graduates and post-graduates. 51.9% suicide victims in Sikkim were illiterate. 36.5% suicide victims in Gujarat had education upto primary level. 68.1% suicide victims in Mizoram and 59.1% suicide victims in Puducherry had middle level education.
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The study titled Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions (2006) prepared by Meeta and Rajiv Lochan, (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration), http://www.yashada.org/organisation/FarmersSuicideExcerpts.pdf revisits some of the families which two earlier reports (Mishra and Dandekar et al) had also visited and criticises them for not doing a good job of compiling the victims' circumstances meticulously. The authors believe that many reports in the past have exaggerated the connection between debt and suicides whereas in reality a lot of other reasons, including harsh environment, a variety of other reasons and absence of basic health services, also play an equally important role. According to the same study:
• The suicide epidemic is said to have its epicentre in Yavatmal district of Maharastra. According to the State Crime Records Bureau, it reported 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786 suicides respectively for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
• Most of the victims of this epidemic were men, mostly in the age group 30 to 50, married and educated, with more social responsibilities, especially in the form of unmarried daughters and or sisters. There were two things that were common among the victims of suicide. One, a feeling of hopelessness: in being unable to resolve problems and dilemmas of personal life; and in the face of an inability to find funds for various activities or repay loans. Two, the absence of any person, group or institution to whom to turn to in order to seek reliable advice: whether for agricultural operations or for seeking funds or for handling private and personal issues.
• People complained about lack of information on various government sponsored schemes. There was little knowledge about institutional mechanisms like the minimum support price (MSP) that would affect marketing, technical knowledge was low and there were no reliable sources from where such knowledge and advice could be accessed. Most farmers were not informed about crop insurance.
• Most of them who committed suicide were Hindus and not Muslims or Christians. This is because Hindu religion allowed certain circumstances for altruistic suicide, whereas the latter two religions frowned upon suicides.
• Chronic alcoholism and drug abuse were found among rural population.
• Loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress for the victim.
The 10 point suggestions are:
1. Enhance the physical interaction between government functionaries and village society by insisting on more tours, night halts and gram sabhas by officers at all levels of the administration.
2. Actively monitor local society, especially farmers, for signs of social, economic and psychological distress and if possible provide social, psychological or spiritual counseling.
3. Implement with rigour the various provisions that already exist to safeguard the interests of the farmer and farm workers for example, the existing money lending act, minimum wage act etc.
4. Increase the efficiency of agriculture extension activities.
5. Increase the efficiency of various services that are delivered by the government in the name of people's welfare at the moment.
6. Make available trained and salaried individuals to serve the rural population. Immediate succour is needed.
7. For the long-term change, it is important to improve the condition of school education and provide appropriate vocational education at the village and taluka level so as to make people understand the complexities of present day production and marketing techniques.
8. Counsel the media to stop highlighting suicide since the fact of highlighting suicide itself adds fuel to the suicide fire as it were.
9. Instead of ex gratia payment being made to families of those who commit suicide, provide employment to a member of the family or help in setting up a small business.
10. Provide direct cash subsidies to actual cultivators.
According to Farmers’ Suicide in India: Agrarian Crisis, Path of Development and Politics in Karnataka by Muzaffar Assadi,
http://viacampesina.net/downloads/PDF/Farmers_suicide_in_india(3).pdf:
• The beginning of agrarian crisis requires being located much earlier to the beginning of suicide, which goes back to the 1980s when the terms of trade were going against agriculture. To oppose State policies, farmers’ movements were led by Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra, Vyavasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, and Rajya Raitha Sangh in Karnataka.
• Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing the agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops, etc. Andhra became the harbinger for such a trend in Karnataka. Suicide in Karnataka was first reported in the northern parts of Karnataka or close to the border areas of Andhra Pradesh.
• The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when two farmers in Bidar, who were involved in cultivating Tur Dal, a market-oriented agricultural crop committed suicide. In the initial two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts in north Karnataka, or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000 , the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chickmagalur Kodagu and it also covered ground water region (Belgaum), assured rain fall region (Haveri), Sugar Cane and Cauvery Irrigation Belt (Mandya). However, in the coastal belt, the number of suicides reported was less.
• During 1999-2001, it was estimated that 110 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka. According to one estimate, 3,000 farmers committed suicide in Karnataka between 1998 and 2006. According to the report prepared by the Crime Branch of Karnataka, the number of suicide under the heading “farming and agricultural activity” comes to 15,804 between 1998 and 2002. Between 1996 and 2002, 12,889 male farmers committed suicide followed by females (2841). The total number of farmers who committed suicide from 1 April, 2003 to 1 January, 2007 comes to 1193.
• Debt burden of the farmers who committed suicide was not uniform. It varied between Rs.5000 to Rs.50000. Many of them had borrowed loan on short-term basis.
• The most striking aspect of the crisis, however, is the fact that large number of farmers who committed suicide largely came from the age group between 25 and 35 years.
• During the first few years of this millennium Karnataka saw a deceleration, due to the negative growth in agriculture. This is apparent from the following facts: the average real GDP rate in different sectors between the period 1995-96 and 2002-03 was 5.86; however, for agriculture it was 1.87 per cent, industry 5.93 per cent, service sector 8.18 percent.
• In Karnataka, the large number of farmers who committed suicide came from the OBCs, though there are also cases of farmers committing suicide, hailing from dominant castes such as Lingayats and Vokkaligas.
• The World Bank dictated terms have gone against the interest of the farmers. This is apparent when Karnataka government for example, went for World Bank loan, which granted Economic Restructuring loan in 2001. This loan came along with a condition that government should withdraw from the power sector as regulator and distributor of power. The free power given to the agriculture was withdrawn and it increased the power tariff drastically.
• Karnataka government was unable to checkmate the growth of money lenders. It failed to make the cooperative movement a success one. In Karnataka although there are 32,382 Cooperative Societies at the village level, almost 40 cent of them are running under loss, nearly twenty cent of them are either defunct or liquidated.
• The Karnataka government is one of the first governments to allow the field trials of Bt Cotton.
• In 2002, 143 talukas were declared drought affected. In 2003, 159 talukas out of 176 talukas in the state, were declared as drought affected. Drought brought down areas under sowing thus affecting production.
• The first debate on farmers' suicide tries to locate the suicide as part of multiple crises. The crises are ecological, economic, and social, each inter-linked with the other. The ecological crisis is the result of intense use of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides, causing the erosion of soil fertility and increasing crop-susceptibility to pests and diseases. Heavy indebtedness led to the economic crisis. The second debate attempts to locate the crisis or the suicide to the negative growth of agrarian economy in the recent past as argued by Vandana Shiva. She comes closer to the Marxist critique particularly the arguments of Utsa Patnaik wherein the latter locates the reasons in the liberalisation/ neocolonialism or imperialist globalisation. The third debate attempts to locate the reasons for the suicide in adapting the World Bank model of agriculture or what is called McKinsey Model of development that created spaces for industry-driven agriculture which ultimately translated into agri-business development including Information technology. The fourth is the discourse, which attempts to locate the suicide exclusively to one phenomenon, that is, the increasing indebtedness or the debt trap. The final discourse, which came from the state, attempts to locate the reasons in multiple issues, such as the incessant floods, manipulation of prices by traders, supply of spurious pesticides and seeds, decline in prices of agricultural produce, increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, successive drought in recent years, and of course, the neglect of farmers by the previous state government.
According to Nagaraj K (2008): Farmers’ Suicides in India, Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns, http://www.macroscan.com/anl/mar08/pdf/Farmers_Suicides.pdf :
• Farm suicides happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh including Chattisgarh
• During the ten-year period spanning 1997 to 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers committed suicide in India. If one considers the 12 year period from 1995 to 2006 the figure is close to 200,000.
• Going by the official data, on average nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or so. It is also clear that every seventh suicide in the country was a farm suicide.
• The year 1998 show a sharp increase in the number of farm suicides – an 18 percent jump from the previous year; and the number remained more or less steady at around 16,000 suicides per year over the next three years upto 2001.
• The average number of farm suicides per year in the five-year span 2002-2006, at 17,513 is substantially higher than the average (of 15,747 per year) for the previous five-year span. Farm suicides have increased at annual compound growth rate of around 2.5 per cent per annum over the period 1997-2006.
• Suicides in general are also largely concentrated among males, but the degree of concentration here is significantly lower than in the case of farm suicides: male suicides in the general population account for nearly 62 percent of all suicides in the country.
According to Hebber, Dr. Ritambhara (2007): ‘Human Security and the Case of Farmers’ Suicides in India: An Exploration’, Centre for Development Studies, School of Social Sciences, TISS, Paper presented in a panel on Rethinking Development in a Conference on ‘Mainstreaming Human Security- an Asian Perspective’ (October 3-4, 2007) organised by Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
http://humansecurityconf.polsci.chula.ac.th/Documents/Presentations/Ritambhara.pdf
• The problem of farmers’ suicides has been seen from the framework of human security. This phenomenon is related to the collapse of basic economic and social support structures in rural India.
• The officials while explaining the suicidal deaths have underplayed the structural changes due to green revolution, globalisation and liberalization. The protective measures and mechanisms required to be provided to the ordinary farmers were overlooked. There has been overemphasis on psychological factors while explaining the suicides.
• Farmers committed suicides mainly from Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Such regions are dry regions where agriculture is mainly rain fed. Farmers were growing cash crops in such regions such as: cotton (particularly in Maharashtra), sunflower, groundnut, and sugarcane (especially in Karnataka).
• Rising cost of production made the farmers to borrow at exorbitant rates from informal sources.
• When the All India Biodynamic and Organic Farming Association wrote to the Mumbai High Court expressing its concern over farmers’ suicides in Jalna, a district in Maharashtra, the Court asked TISS to conduct a survey study. Based on the survey, the Court asked the Maharastra government to consider the issue seriously. The TISS report identified the untenable cost of agricultural production and indebtedness as the key reasons for suicides. The IGIDR report, on the other hand, did not implicate the government or its policies for the suicides; instead it sought a greater role for government intervention through rural development programmes to expand non-farm activity among farmers.
• A special relief package was announced by the Maharastra government in December, 2005 for six districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Washim and Wardha.
• Pesticide and fertiliser companies have been extending credit to farmers in Karnataka and in Maharashtra, which adds to their debt burden.
• Poor health conditions, family disputes over property, domestic problems, and heavy social burden of marrying daughters coupled with alcoholism have pushed farmers towards committing suicides, according the committee report headed by GK Veeresh.
• Farmers’ movement headed by Shetkari Shangathana was quite strong during the 1980s in Maharastra.
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According to CP Chandrashekhar and Jayati Ghosh (2005): The Burden of Farmers’ Debt, Macroscan, http://www.macroscan.com/the/food/sep05/fod140905Farmers_Debt.htm
• One of the important purpose of taking loans was for spending on ''marriages and ceremonies'', which however accounted for a much smaller proportion of total loans, at around 11 per cent. This purpose was most important for farmer households of Bihar (22.9 per cent) followed by those in Rajasthan (17.6 per cent).
• Moneylenders have emerged as the most significant source of credit for farmers, with 29 per cent accessing this source.
• The influence of moneylenders appears to be especially strong in Bihar (44 per cent) and Rajasthan (40 per cent). Traders — of both inputs and outputs — also have provided loans to 12 per cent of indebted farmers. However, institutional sources still remain significant, with more than half of farmers accessing government, co-operative societies and banks taken together
• Average amount of the outstanding loan increases with the size of the land holding, but what is more interesting is that the proportion of indebted farmers also increases with the size class.
• Even among very small and marginal farmers, the amount of outstanding loan is substantial, given the likely low incomes from such smallholdings, which suggests some sort of cumulative process leading to a debt trap for the very resource poor cultivators.
According to Causes of Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: AN ENQUIRY, Final Report Submitted to the Mumbai High Court March 15, 2005, which has been prepared by Ajay Dandekar, Shahaji Narawade, Ram Rathod, Rajesh Ingle, Vijay Kulkarni, and Sateppa YD, http://www.tiss.edu/Causes%20of%20Farmer%20Suicides%20in%20Maharashtra.pdf:
• This Report on the farmer suicides in the state of Maharashtra is being submitted as per the Judgment of the Court that made the TISS a consultant in the Public Interest Litigation Number 164 of 2004. The nature of this report is to primarily apprise the Court of the causes that led the farmers to take this extreme step, as per the findings of the research team. The Interim Report was submitted to the Court on February 16, 2005, and this Final Report is being submitted on its due date — March 16, 2005.
• The total numbers of suicides reported in Maharashtra, till December 2004, were 644, with most of the deaths occurring in the Vidharbha, Marathwada and Khandesh regions of the state. Thus, the present investigation concentrated on these regions. Out of the total 644 farmer suicides, a sample of five per cent, i.e., 36 cases were identified for the study.
• The TISS team conducted detailed case studies (life history approach) of all the families of the 36 cases; it also conducted several focus group discussions with farmers in each of the 36 villages covered.
• Repeated crop failures, inability to meet the rising cost of cultivation, and indebtedness seem to create a situation that forces farmers to commit suicide. However, not all farmers facing these conditions commit suicide — it is only those who seem to have felt that they have exhausted all avenues of securing support have taken their lives.
• It is not only the landed who have a crisis of indebtedness to deal with. There were a number of landless families who had leased land on a short-/long-term basis by securing loans. It was also noticed that many landless families managed to acquire money through migration to cities and purchased lands in the late eighties and early nineties. Many such families were caught up in cycles of debt and destitution, which ultimately led to the suicide of the head of the family. Thus, the survivors were reduced to landlessness due to debt. Among those committed included medium and large landowners who were also affected by a high level of un-payable debt.
• In the cotton belt, the crop seems to have failed more than once in the last four years. This crop failure has always not been associated with natural calamities, such as failure of rain or un-seasonal rains leading to destruction of crops. The causes are an increase in pest attacks in the last few years, especially from 1995 onwards. This meant that the farmers needed more money to pay for pesticides, though, in the end, a high level of pesticide use did not prevent crop failure.
• Longitudinal data available with government sources indicate declining productivity of land. This meant increased use of fertilisers to enhance productivity of land. The information available indicates that farmers have been spending more on fertilisers even while crop performance has been showing a declining trend. The group discussions and case studies point to the fact that the quantity of use of fertiliser per acre rose in the midnineties and has now reached a saturation point. There appears to be a decrease in the production per acre in the same area.
• The farmers are dependent on agents of fertiliser and pesticide companies for advice on seeds and crop care. The information base of the farmers is, thus, limited to the data provided by the agents and their products. A false perception of prosperity is being created in the minds of the cultivators that prompts them to take serious risks in terms of fertiliser-based cropping pattern.
• Input costs have also exhibited a sharp rise. Agriculture has become more expensive post-1995. This rise in the input cost is reflected in the electricity bills, rising costs of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilisers, energy (diesel), transportation, etc. The rising input cost is not matched by the crop yield and price obtained. The minimum support price has not been available to all farmers, particularly the small and marginal farmers. Large landowners have been able to benefit from support price, when the government has occasionally provided such support. The absence of support price has had serious implications to the farmers.
• Declining opportunities in non-farm employment has further aggravated the crisis. It seems that in areas where suicides have occurred, non-farm options are getting limited.
• Those farmers who faced repeated crop failures accumulated loans beyond their capacity to repay. Thus, most of victims had turned defaulters over the last four years. This points to a serious crisis as reflected in the absence of the support system to bail the farmers out, in the form of relatives, neighbours, banks and even the moneylenders who had stopped giving the loans to them lately.
• The investment (at 1980–81 prices) stood at Rs. 1,266 crores in 1950–51 and rose to Rs. 5,246 crores by 1978-79. However, it has declined since 1978–79 and was only Rs. 4,692 crores in 1990–91. The share of agricultural investment came down from 22% in 1950–51 to 19% in 1980–81 and even further to about 10% in 1990–91. This has adversely affected the public sector investment in irrigation as more than 90% of the total public investment in agriculture goes for irrigation. The share of the irrigation sector (in states only) in the total public investment came down from 14.7% in 1980–81 to only 5.6% in 1990–91 (at 1980–81 prices) of the public sector investment, whereas the total increase in investment was at the rate of 6.3% per annum.
• In 1989–90, the total subsidies to agriculture amounted to Rs. 1,3500 crores — these were mainly given on fertilisers, irrigation and electricity. These subsidies have gone towards the development of the wealthier farmers in regions where investments have already poured in.
• The opening up of Indian agriculture to multinational corporations and the withdrawal of the GoI from this system of production has occurred simultaneously. Moreover, the internal markets have become unstable due to the lowering of tariff barriers. Unfair terms of trade towards agriculture of developing countries have made matters worse for those who are engaged in and/or are dependent on this system of agriculture.
• Bio-diversity is under threat due to TRIPS and the WTO. Environmental degradation resulting in deforestation and depletion of water availability (drinking and agriculture), both in quantity and quality, has made the situation more serious. Untenable cost of production in modern agriculture techniques, institutional and low interest credit and the absence of a credible security net (i.e., crop insurance) are not making things easy for the cultivators in the country.
• Favourable / Unfavourable agro climatic situation among the State leading to variation in per hectare yield: The agro climatic situation varies from State to State. This leads to variation in per hectare yield. The per hectare yield in Maharashtra State is less in comparison with the yield of other States due to inadequate irrigation facilities and unfavourable agro climatic situations. This leads to more cost of production. However, due to favourable agro climatic situation and sufficient irrigation facilities, the per hectare yield in Haryana and Punjab is more. Therefore, the cost of production of these States is conducive for the States where a particular crop is grown on a large scale. This adversely affects States like Maharashtra who have unfavourable agro climatic situation and higher cost of production. The Minimum Support Prices declared by Government of India does not cover the cost of production of the agriculture producer to the full extent. Therefore, the Minimum Support Prices do not give full justice to the farmers of the State having high cost of production. Therefore, instead of declaring one Minimum Support Price at the National Level, separate support prices may be declared for groups of States according to the cost of cultivation.
• In connection with the price environment for the farmers, it needs to be pointed out that there has been considerable increase in the price of important farm inputs during the last five years. Between 1990–91and 95–96 while the prices of wheat as measured by the average of wholesale price indices increased by 58%, that of fertilizer increased by 113%, that of irrigation by 62% and insecticides by 90 percent. While the recent revision in the administered prices of petroleum products, the price of diesel would be higher by 75% than their level during 1990-91. The report further points out that the small and marginal farmers do not get ever get the administered price declared by the state