Farmers in rich states are more suicide-prone

NEW DELHI: What do you make of data which shows farmers in poorer states like Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar pulling along, while their counterparts in relatively better-off states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra forced into suicides in alarming numbers?

Figures show that suicides by farmers are more common in relatively well-off states where they attempt to move up the value chain by going into risky cash crops, while farmers in poorer states stick to cereal cultivation and are averse to switching over to commercial crops.

In Bihar, for instance, between 1995 and ‘01, the suicide mortality rate has been unchanged at about 1 per lakh. But as the table shows, in the same period, it has more than trebled in Maharashtra from 14.7 per lakh to 44.1 per lakh. The picture in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh is similar. From 1995 to ’01, the suicide rate among farmers in the state went up from 13.8 to 25.6. But farmers in Assam and Uttar Pradesh have suicide mortality rates of 5.5 and 3.3 per lakh, respectively.

Farmers in southern states have largely switched to cash crops like edible oils, sugarcane and, especially cotton. These crops are highly market-sensitive and enjoy no government intervention like the minimum support price (MSP) system.

But farmers in the Gangetic plains have stuck to cereals, both wheat and rice. Not only are the yields for these crops relatively stable, their prices have a floor because of the MSP system.

The data comes from the National Crime Records Bureau under the Central government, so there is a lag in figures for more recent years. But economists say the trend has worsened in recent years.

Planning Commission member Abhijeet Sen confirmed the trend and said: “Various studies have clearly shown indebtedness to be one of the key reason for farmers’ suicide in many states. And, indebtedness is linked to cash crops for which farmers have to borrow.

Farmers doing subsistence agriculture are less likely to get into the problem of indebtedness.” This possibly explains why states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which are largely dominated by cereal cropping, mostly subsistence in nature, have not recorded many suicides.

A study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Maharashtra also found the same correlation. “Seventy per cent of the total number of suicide victims grew cotton as their primary cash crop. The cost of cotton cultivation is between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 an acre.”

Economist CP Chandrashekhar also endorsed the view that farmers borrowing to fund inputs for cash crops were a vulnerable lot. “They get into a debt trap if there is inadequate returns due to price fluctuation and other factors. The risk is particularly severe when the farmer tries to move up the value chain.”