Fixing of remunerative prices for agricultural produce on a scientific basis, waiver of loans taken from cooperatives as well as nationalised banks, easy credit availability, extension of insurance to all types of crops and supply of quality power for pumpsets were some of the important suggestions by farmers and their representatives for preventing suicides of farmers.
At a day-long interactive session on  “Preventing suicides among farmers” organised by the State government at the Jnana Jyothi Auditorium here on Thursday, the farmers were all praise for the government for waving crop loans up to Rs 25,000, besides sanctioning loans at four per cent interest.
The Centre should also make loans available through nationalised banks at four per cent interest. “Due to non-availability of easy credit from financial institutions, farmers are turning to private lenders who exploit them by charging heavy interest -- the main reason for high loan burden on farmers, leading to their suicides,” Basavaraj Tambake, a farmers’ leader from Bidar, said.
Relief not enough
The entire society should be ashamed of these suicides. “It’s an insult to all of us. Even during 1972, when a grave drought situation prevailed in the State, there was no incidents of suicide,” he pointed out.
Siddaramareddy from Gulbarga district felt Rs 25,000/ha relief announced for growers for non-crushing of sugarcane, was not adequate. “It should have been Rs 25,000 an acre,” he said. Basavaraj Patil from Raichur highlighted the flaws in the crop insurance policy. 
One participant from Bellary felt the farmers themselves should be blamed for their present plight. “By excessively using fertilizers and pesticides, they have spoiled the top soil, leading to a steep slide in farm output,” he said, suggesting farmers to go in for organic farming.
Claiming that more than 1.30 lakh farmers have ended their lives in the past 13 years in the country, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha President K S Puttannaiah felt these deaths could not be described as “suicides” but should be treated as “murders”, of which the International Human Rights Commission must take a serious note.
He warned the situation could lead to ‘bloodshed’.
He faulted the credit and price fixation policies being followed for the situation, and sought formulation of separate policies for dryland and commercial crops, besides a one-time investment of Rs 10,000 crore in the irrigation sector.