Farmers Suicides
Every day we read the news of the tragic suicides by farmers in Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh, U.P., Punjab, MY. and other states being unable to pay back loans. The reasons are not far to seek. Due to high birth rate the farming lands got divided again and again among the generations of multiple successors. As a result, today farmers are left with small land holdings providing barely survival food. A slight damage to crops for whatever reason spells doom causing suicides.
Another reason is the high cost of inputs due to globalization and cut in subsidies. The prices of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides have shot up many fold. But food grain prices have risen marginally. It has made farming an enviable business. The farmers take their lives being unable to pay loans.
To make matters worse there are no other job opportunities in villages. The rural employment schemes have proved of little help. Due to population pressure even towns and cities provide few jobs. Thus, a farmer’s family is besieged with problems.
The only way out seems to be creation of jobs in the rural sector through massive projects and schemes. It is about time farming sector is geared up to usher in a Second Green Revolution by diverting funds from the industrial sector. Villages need to be converted into employment and wealth creating centres.
