Farmer suicides drop in Karnataka due to guarantees, friendly schemes

Bengaluru: Farmer suicides, which had touched 922 in 2022-23 and had risen to 1,061 in 2023-24, dropped to 346 in 2024-25 till date, owing to delay in loan recovery, release of input subsidy for seeds and fertilisers and good rains.

Since 2022, the state has witnessed 2,329 farmer suicides due to farm distress, including crop loss due to floods and drought, according to data sourced from the Revenue Department.

In the last three years, 254 farmers died by suicide in Haveri, 167 in Mysuru, 148 in Dharwad, 142 in Kalaburagi and 141 in Belagavi district.

The state government has cleared compensation to most of the 2,329 cases except in 20 cases due to technical glitches.

Speaking to DH, Revenue Minister, Krishna Byre Gowda opined that the state government's five guarantee schemes could have provided an economic safety net for the rural populace,
preventing suicides.

"Apart from guarantees, directions to co-operative banks and financial institutions to refrain from attaching properties of defaulting farmers but instead issuing them “caution” notices could have given farmers relief," he noted.

The state government gives Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of farmers who died by suicide, and the deceased's spouse gets a monthly pension of Rs 2,000. Farmers who die due to snakebites and other accidents get a compensation of Rs 2 lakh.

The government had also advised the state level bankers' committee to be sympathetic towards defaulting farmers since crops in Belagavi, Gadag, Vijayapura and Dharwad had been hit by heavy rains.

Gowda also said the co-operation department and other departments had kept a tight vigil on private lenders and financial institutions, who charge high insterest rates.

Minister for Agriculture Marketing and Sugar Shivanand Patil told DH that the state government's measures like Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) and timely release of minimum support price (MSP) along with the state's component for several crops like coconut, food grains including urad dal, green gram, sunflower and maize have also helped in preventing suicides.

"Raising zero percent loan to farmers to Rs 5 lakh and offering up to Rs 15 lakh loans at 3% interest have reduced farmers' dependence on private lenders,” he underlined.

The minister noted, "Bountiful rains have resulted in reservoirs filling up. This has helped sowing. There is a minimum subsidy of 50% for procuring seeds, farming equipment, supply of tarpaulin sheets and pesticides. Subsidy of 75% is extended to supply green leaf manure to promote organic farming, helping farmers in a big way."