But such a cursory look at the data is a mistake. To understand the magnitude of the problem, it is more meaningful to look specifically at the suicide rate for farmers. This number is available from 1995. A paper by Srijit Mishra on suicide mortality rates shows that while in 1995, for every one lakh farmers 9.7 farmers committed suicide, in a short span of six years this number had risen to 16.2. What is even more striking is how the suicide mortality rate has risen sharply in some states. For Andhra Pradesh it has risen from 13.6 to 25.6 over this period. For Karnataka it rose from 33.7 to 44.5, and for Kerala from 127.6 to 161.8. The ratio for Maharashtra has increased from 14.7 in 1995 to 44.1 over in 2001 and further to 57 in 2004.

The problem may not be an all-India phenomenon but, clearly, it is quite acute in some states. Indeed, even within these states there are some regions where farmer suicides have risen even more sharply. Between 2001 and 2004 the divisions of Amravati and Nagpur witnessed the highest suicide rates for males at 115.6 and 55.5, respectively. This data reveals what the all-India data hides. That there is no denying that there are certain pockets of rural India where there has been a sharp increase in farmer distress.

The question of how to solve the problem is far more complex. It is not easy to pin-point the causes of the suicides. Indebtedness is very high on the list. Eighty-five per cent of the farmers who committed suicide were highly indebted. Most of these were small and marginal farmers in rainfed areas that lack canal irrigation. They try to grow cash crops and need water, seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and credit. A number of microlevel studies have been done and most of them indicate that the primary reason for taking the loan was for crop inputs. This is in contrast to the old India where loans were taken for non-farm purposes like weddings. In 60 to 70 per cent of the cases the loan is taken from a private moneylender. Farmers’ hopes often get dashed when despite boring wells they do not find water, when the harvest is bad, or when a good harvest results in low prices. Two to three continuous years of distress can push many farmers to suicide.

... contd.