'Loans from moneylenders behind farmer suicides in state'

1,569 farmers ended their lives in Karnataka in 2015: ISEC study

Taking crop loans from private moneylenders is the most important driver behind farmers’ suicide in Karnataka that records India's second highest number of farmer suicides, a new study has found.

As many as 85% of Karnataka households surveyed in the study identified crop loans as the most important reason behind the suicide committed by a family member of the household. Karnataka is followed by Tamil Nadu (67%) and Andhra Pradesh (63%).

“Without exception, all the sample households mentioned non-institutional loan as one cause of farmers’ suicide. The overall indication was that the pressure exerted by non-institutional lenders was more than that by institutional ones,” says the study, conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru.

The study was commissioned by the Agriculture Ministry, which shared the report with the Supreme Court in connection with a public interest litigation on farmer suicides that the court was hearing.

The survey team interviewed members of 528 victim households – farming families where one member committed suicide – spread across 388 villages in 13 states, including Karnataka. Besides indebtedness, it identified several farming and social causes too behind the rising trend of suicide among farmers.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 12,602 people involved in farming sector (farmers and agriculture labourers combined) committed suicide in 2015, accounting for 9.4% of total suicide victims (1,33,623). The numbers are on the rise for the last three years.

State-wise, the maximum number of suicides was reported in Maharashtra (4,291) followed by Karnataka (1,569); Telangana (1,400), Madhya Pradesh (1,290), Chhattisgarh (954), Andhra Pradesh (916) and Tamil Nadu (606) in 2015, accounting for 87% of all farmers suicide in India.

Inability to get farm credit and crop failure are also among the drivers pushing a hapless farmer towards suicide.

Expectation of loan waiver as one of the causes for suicide was the maximum in Kerala (89%) followed by Karnataka (66%) and Tamil Nadu (57%). Failure of rainfall was a cause for suicide in all states except Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

There are also social causes like drug abuse, alcoholism, extra-marital affair and fear of declining social status.

However, the numbers in these categories are far less than farming and indebtedness causes.

With the apex court hearing the PIL, the agriculture ministry last month reviewed the measures that the centre and state governments have taken to prevent farmers’ suicide.

In the review meeting, Karnataka officials pointed out that farmers’ suicide was on a high for the fourth consecutive year because of drought and failure of sugarcane crop.