Farmers committing suicide can be a truly embarrassing situation for any society. The issues compelling the farmers to commit suicide are required to be paid attention immediately, as the farmers toil tirelessly to produce grain for us without which we can’t survive. In recent times the statistics have depicted an alarming rate of the incidents of farmers committing suicide in India which has become a matter of grave concern. If we fail to give timely attention to this growing issue, the situation may get even worse and the nation will have to pay very grave socio-economic costs.
The students are required to properly understand the reasons why the farmers are taking such drastic steps like committing suicide. They are also required to delve deeply into this matter of grave concern to reach a solution. Here we are providing articles on the issue of farmers’ suicide while recommending solutions at the same time in 300, 500, 600 and 800 words in simple language. These are equally useful for the students as well as the other people. You can choose any article out of these as per your requirement:
India is an agriculture-based nation; still the situation of the farmers in this country is more worrying than in any other developing nations. Over the past nearly two decades, the trend of the farmers committing suicide in our country has been on the rise.
This extremely challenging issue for the first time came under sharp focus when some of farmers engaged in cotton cultivation in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra suddenly committed suicides. This trend which was started initially by the farmers of Maharashtra gradually spread throughout the country. Today the situation has become even worse and in almost every state the government is finding it tough to deal with rising statistics of farmers’ suicide.
Liberalization and globalization
It is due to the liberalization and globalization that the import of food grains at cheaper prices has already begun and on the other side, farmers in our country are forced to burn their ready crops right in the fields. The reason why they are doing so is that they are not able to get good price for their crops and sometimes the overall price which they get after selling their harvest falls far lower than the total sum invested by them in farming.
Poverty, penury and the amount of the loans taken by them for harvesting coupled with the rising interest on their loan amount eventually push them and their entire family to commit suicide.
Diagnosis is important
Although the Government has been instrumental in running many farmer’s welfare schemes recently, but no considerable impact has been visible. Thus, for the Government to diagnose the root cause of this issue it is urgent to take appropriate steps without losing anymore time. It should introduce a new, simplified welfare schemes which may help the farmers in getting good base price for their crop, besides interest free loan for farming, among others.
Conclusion: For an agricultural country like India, farmers’ suicide is an extremely worrying situation and it certainly is a national problem which demands immediate solution. The government should run more effective welfare schemes for the poor and landless farmers, some of which may be like crop insurance and providing loans to the farmers on minimal interest rates. If such welfare schemes can be offered immediately and without losing time any further, only then the farmers can be prevented from committing suicides.
Farmers’ suicide has become a national problem in our country. Every other day we come across news about the farmers committing suicide in different parts of the country. Undoubtedly the farmers play an important role in the progress and development of the country, but still if they get prompted to end their lives due to any reason so far, it is a matter of grave concern.
A major reason why the farmers commit suicide is that they borrow huge amount of money from moneylenders or from their landlords for their harvest, but many times they fail to repay the huge debt. Such situation becomes more difficult for those farmers who don’t have their own land to cultivate their crops. For the purpose of farming, they take land from the landlords under the agreement of Batai which means the harvest shall be divided equally between the farmers and their landlords.
Due to this system many times nothing comes into the hands of the farmers because they give half of the crop to their landlords and the other half of the crop is used in the part-payment of the loan taken from the landlords or the money lenders. On the other hand, landlords bear no responsibility other than suddenly entering into the scene when the harvest is ready, just to collect their share.
Grave situation
We are already aware that in our country, every year the farmers have to suffer huge losses either due to floods, or draughts. Whatever may be the reason so far for the loss of their crops, they end-up empty handed and fail to repay their debt. In such a scenario, they suffer from humiliation and in such a situation their persisting mental agony compels them to commit suicide.
We all know that our lives depend on the crops harvested by these farmers and so, the Government should immediately find out some ways to help these farmers. The Government should carefully take into account all those issues which compel the farmers to commit suicide and moreover, it should also fix all those issues immediately. In almost every village of the country, the condition of the farmers is more or less same. When they fail to repay their loans, they find it more convenient to end their life then to face the social humiliation.
What are the solutions?
The only solution to avoid this problem lies with the Government which is required to run crop guarantee scheme, besides it may also arrange for providing loans to the farmers on negligible interest rate. The biggest step in this direction that the Government may take to help the farmers can be – to make financial arrangements especially to support the farmers while making the yearly budget.
It is very important to save the farmer from committing suicide by introducing path-breaking welfare schemes to help them on a mass scale. Only by taking such measures, the providers of our food grains can be saved from leading a miserable life which ends with suicide.
Conclusion: It is urgent to pay attention to the rising incidents of the framers committing suicide. The government should come forward and take necessary steps to safeguard the farmers against all those issues which compel them to commit suicide. It should make adequate arrangements for the farmers in case they lose their crops due to any eventuality and moreover it should also provide them loan on the most economical interest rate to safeguard them from becoming victims of landlords as well as money lenders.
A farmer in our country starts his day very early in the morning even before the sun sets in and straightaway he goes to serve his animals and thereafter he reaches at his farm in no time. In this way, the farmer’s day begins only at his field. Moreover, his job is not an easy one like the eight hour-job which any common urban citizen does in the city. After the day’s hard work when he reaches home with his oxen along with plough on his shoulders, still his heart and mind remain lost in his field. Though he sleeps in the night, but only thinking about the next day’s course of work which include crop sowing and harvesting, among others. Once again the next day from the early morning the same routine follows for him.
Hardships faced by the farmers
After such a difficult routine and hard work, no one can even imagine to face financial crunch, or to remain ridden with poverty. It is truly a reality in our country that the farmers commit suicide due to extreme poverty. They can’t do farming without taking loans from the local moneylenders and landlords to fulfil various requirements of farming. In true sense, no farmer can predict about his crop, and most of the time their entire crop gets destroyed because of flooding, draught, or any other natural calamity. In such a scenario their financial status become vulnerable and they fail to repay their debt.
But on the other hand, the amount of their loan becomes many times more than the principal, as the money lenders charge compound interest on the amount borrowed by the farmers. Hence a vicious circle of poverty gets kick-started automatically and they again enter the clutches of the same money lenders to borrow more money for their next crop. The situation gradually becomes so horrible that after the death of the father, the loan gets transferred to the son, who also starts his miserable journey to death in his fields working endlessly, but unable to repay the debt.
Reasons and their remedies
Among the many reasons responsible for this miserable situation of the farmers is that most of the farmers in our country are landless and they take the farms on batai (a unique arrangement of dividing the harvest in equal proportion. The final produced crop gets shared between the farmers and the landowners equally. The farmers’ real trouble starts when their crops get ravaged by floods or draught and thus they become helpless.
Already facing huge loss, the hapless farmers are struck with double whammy from the landowners and the money lenders for repaying their debt and the rising interest on the loan amount. Between all these miseries, the personal life of the farmers and that of their families get completely destroyed and eventually they decide to take the extreme step of committing suicide. To save our farmers from facing such situations, it is important for the Government to support them with various means.
These may include arranging loans for them on low interest rates, and supplying seeds and fertilizers free of cost and most importantly arranging for them farmlands on low cost, besides any other support whatsoever may be required. Apart from all these, for any reason if their crops get destroyed there should be a provision to waive of their entire loans.
Conclusion: The Government should support the farmers in all their activities attached to farming – from seeding to harvest. Against any eventualities, the Government should provide them guarantee for their crops, besides providing them economical land for farming as well. The Government should also provide them enough financial support to meet all their expenses in connection with farming. It should also ensure that their harvest reaches in the market directly without being affected by any hindrance created by the middlemen. Only if the government may ascertain all these supports, the complete happiness of the farmers can be ensured and they may avoid committing suicide at least due to this particular reason.
The farmers are just another name for austerity and hard work. Ours is an agricultural based country where almost 70 per cent of the population still depends on agriculture. That is why you can find green farms spread over all across the country. In any weather, be it sweltering sun or freezing winters, the farmers in this country can be seen working in their fields round-the-clock. The entire life of the farmers is spent in cultivating their fields. Without any complain they remain engaged in their work. Farming is not at all an easy task, as it includes working in the fields round-the-clock, crop cultivation and planting, besides crop care, harvesting the crops and then selling the produced crops in the market.
Cause to worry
Even after working so hard in their farms, if the farmers of some parts of the country are compelled to commit suicide, it is a serious concern, which we should immediately pay attention to. We all know that India was earlier known as the golden bird, there was no dearth of food and money in the country, and the farmers were overall happy. That is also the reason why India has been known as an agriculture-based nation. But the things have completely changed now. The situation of the farmers has become so bad that they are forced to commit suicides. Surely this is a terrible scenario and a truth which we cannot ignore as it calls for an immediate attention.
The history
In India, the problems of farmers came to light in 1990 when the period of liberalization started. An important English-language newspaper, The Hindu started publishing reports of farmers committing suicides in its newspaper in that year. The initial reports came from Maharashtra where in Vidarbha region; a cotton farmer had committed suicide. Thereafter, the newspaper also published similar reports of farmers’ suicides coming from Andhra Pradesh.
Reading these report, initially the people thought it was the problem of Vidarbha and its surrounding areas only and only the local government of that particular area was required to pay attention to the situation. However, when the emerging figures were monitored carefully, the situation was found to be worst. The horrible fact which came to light was that along with the farmers of Vidarbha, the farmers from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, including other states in the country were found doing suicides.
The most critical aspect of all this was that apart from small farmers, medium and large farmers had also committed suicide. According to the statistics, in the year 2009, total 17,368 farmers committed suicide and on an average the annual rate of farmers committing suicide is being recorded as 10,000 per annum currently.
The solution
In India, most of the farmers are poor and they do not have their own lands. They cultivate the lands of the landlords and moreover, also borrow money from them for seeds, fertilizer and other farming-related needs. Before they could repay their earlier debt, they start taking loan for the second harvest from them and in the meantime they have to face natural calamity such as floods and droughts as well. Even most of the time their crops get destroyed by worms and insects and this way they fail to repay their loans and hence commit suicide.
In other words, the farmers in India commit suicide after getting upset by economic exploitation at the hands of the landlords and the moneylenders. It has also been seen at times that the farmers also commit suicide after they receive excessive yields in their fields. It is since the excessive yields result into the fall of minimum support price up to the extent that it becomes far below than the total amount invested by them and hence they fail to repay their debt.
The government can implement a range of welfare schemes for the farmers, besides agricultural development plans to prevent the farmers from committing suicides. Moreover, it can also implement crop insurance schemes for the farmers, besides helping them by offering farming loans on minimal interest rates through cooperative banks. It can also provide them high-quality seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural equipments on minimal cost. Moreover, the government can also provide land to the landless farmers. Through these measures it can easily prevent the situations which compel the farmers to commit suicide.
Conclusion: The issue of farmers committing suicide has now become a national problem. If this situation is not controlled early, it will get out of the hand. For the farmers it is urgently required to offer them high support prices as well as crop insurance. High support price for their crops is also required besides making available easy credit for themselves. These are the only ways through which the situation of farmers can be improved and they may be prevented from committing suicide.