What is the issue?

There remain misconceptions regarding farmer suicides. There is a need to set right these erroneous ideas and to devise solutions to address the prevailing crisis of the peasantry in Punjab.

What is the situation in Punjab?

• Despite being a benchmark of agricultural growth during the green revolution since the mid-1960s, agriculture in Punjab in particular is undergoing a phase of decline.
• The existing situation is quite grave as the farmers are burdened by about ?80,000 crore.
• 6,926 farmers and agricultural labourers committed suicide in the state during 2000–10.
• The high debt burden was the primary reason behind 75% of farmer suicides.
• According to a report of seven districts in the state, the debt-related suicide cases have increased at an alarming rate of 90.23% during 2010–16.
• Surprisingly, still some people attribute this scenario of suicide cases to socio-psychological behaviour of the affected farmers.

What are the misconceptions?

• There is a common misconception that farmers in Punjab are not working by choice, since migrant labourers are coming to the state and constitute a major proportion of the farm workforce.
• If the sowing of the wheat crop is delayed by a week, it directly decreases productivity to the extent of 3.5 quintal/ha.
• Thus, it makes the window of opportunity rigid and necessitates the hiring of labour for 10–12 days/year especially during the peak season. In contrast, with the onset of the lean period (which is about 260 days/annum) the problem of unemployment comes to the fore.
• Further, with the prevalent use of farm machinery and chemicals (weedicides), the overall requirement for labour has gone down.
• The farmers are also blamed for their lavish spending habits and consumer behavior
• But the actual status of farm income and magnitude of debt is generally ignored. That farm mechanisation, especially ownership of tractors (often considered unviable for smaller farmers), leads to debt, is another misconception.
• The average size of landholdings is 3.94 ha in the state. According to estimates of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, the ownership of tractors is economically viable for farming on a land size of 8 ha. Therefore, it would make sense only for large farmers to own tractors.
• However, due to a short span of time during which harvesting and sowing of crops is undertaken, the whole farming community requires tractors.
• In such a situation, the tractors of larger farmers are seldom free for hiring out to smaller farmers. The alternative to tractor farming, bullock farming, is more expensive than tractor farming.
• Another popular discourse profess a very strong linkage between drug addiction and suicides. Despite drug addiction being a menace in Punjab, this factor is not the sole determinant of the mass agrarian crisis.

What is the root Cause of Crisis?

• The MSP of wheat and paddy increased at the rate of 2% per annum while the cost of cultivation increased at the rate of 7.9% during the last one and a half decades.
• Plummeting incomes, mounting debt, and high interest rates (particularly of non-institutional sources) have pushed the peasantry towards deprivation.
• Farming, particularly small farming, is no longer a viable occupation as incomes are not sufficient to meet the basic expenses of domestic consumption, healthcare, and education.

What should be done?

• Adequate and immediate compensation is imperative to ameliorate the financial stress on the deceased families.
• The children of the victim families must be provided free education.
• As the Punjab government has promised to provide jobs to one member in each family in the state, this may be started with the next of kin of the victim of farmer suicides.
• Also, the MSP as per the Swaminathan report (cost plus 50%) needs to be honoured and implemented.
• The AMSCs should be set up at every village to provide custom-hiring services to small farmers on a priority basis.
• Quality farm inputs like seed, fertilisers, and pesticides must be supplied to the farmers at a subsidie price