NEW DELHI: Union Agriculture Secretary Radha Singh said the recent spate of suicides by farmers needed to be viewed in context and not blown out of proportion.

"Suicides are a cause for concern but an analysis of the suicide records of the past 10 years shows that the number of suicides in rural India has not exceeded 16 per cent of the total in any given year," she said at the valedictory session of the Agri-Marketing Summit 2006 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Friday.

In 2003-04, the National Crime Records Bureau showed that there were 187,000 suicides in India. "Of this, only 16 per cent were in rural India. This debunks the current perception that there has been an unprecedented rise in the number of farmer suicides in India," said Ms. Singh, who was involved in preparation of the Rehabilitation Package for Farmers.

She said the major cause for suicides was indebtedness. The Government's aim, therefore, was to bring more farmers under the purview of agricultural credit schemes. The target is to raise the coverage to 70 per cent from 45 per cent now. "At the same time we will deal with issues of access to finance and interest rates especially for the small and marginal farmers."

She urged insurance companies to work out policies for perishables to increase the scope for risk management and said the emerging pattern of contract farming had to be specific to the state, region and crop.

``We need to move ahead with speed and openness and dispel suspicions surrounding the entry of the corporate sector into contract farming," she said.

Summarising the proceedings of the summit, conference chairman Gokul Patnaik said contract farming worked best when the sponsor was an exporter or processor or when there were linkages between farmers and large retail chains. The contract farming system in India had to be rationalised as there were 130 models today.

Contracts needed to cover the basics such as price, quality, quantity and delivery times. Farmers need access to market information as well as critical inputs.

"The legal framework and financing of contract farming ventures also have to be made more farmer-friendly and contract farming has to mitigate production and marketing risks," he said.

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