Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Farmer suicides

Your front page report (December 12) on the number of agrarian suicides is highly distressing. The fact that the causes for the suicides remain unaddressed reflects the total official apathy. Unless opportunities for additional income are generated, suicides are likely to continue in the agrarian sector. The State governments should take up infrastructure development projects to offer employment opportunities to locals. Also, educating ryots on water and soil management and seed selection will empower them. Cooperative banks need to free farmers from the clutches of private moneylenders.

Nirmala Narayanan

Bangalore

It is indeed an irony that farmers — producers of food which sustains lives — take their lives due to penury.

S. Ramakrishnasayee,

Ranipet

In spite of the huge loan waiver to farmers, suicides are continuing with Maharashtra recording the largest number of cases. Have these victims been denied the benefit of the waiver? Are the reports submitted by committees such as the National Commission on Farmers not fully implemented? What purpose do such committees serve if the government is unable to help farmers in distress? The nation looks for answers and action to prevent suicides in future.

V. Rajagopal

Tirupati

It is appalling that 16,632 farmers committed suicide in India, home to the largest network of indigenous farmers in the world. While India’s economy booms in the era of globalisation, thousands of farmers are taking their own lives every year to escape mounting debt and an uncertain future. Given that today’s agricultural economy favours large producers, the small farmers have almost no ability to secure credit through conventional banks, allowing usurious moneylenders to step in. One cannot blame it on the failure of the monsoon or the decline in prices. Keeping the market open to unregulated, predatory private practice is the root cause of the exploitation of the farmers.

The other causes are growing expenditure, low productivity, inadequate prices for the produce, marketing difficulties, natural hazards caused by drought and floods, insufficient agriculture credit, and an accumulated burden of debt. Economic gimmicks such as announcing free electricity and enhancing bank credit will not help farmers. Credit from formal sources to the agricultural sector is inadequate.

Large public investment in irrigation and rural infrastructure, rejuvenation of the cooperative credit, and a modern marketing and processing system, strengthening of the agricultural extension services and an efficient administration working closely with the farming community are required to stop the suicides.

T. Marx

Puducherry

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