Deep financial turmoil and fear that they may never be able to win back their livelihood drive farmers to commit suicide.
But other factors like inability to support their families, harassment by lenders, deep hurt to one's social ego, also push farmers to take this decision. They start thinking that there can be no other way to liberate themselves from this crisis, which to them is harsher than death. In India, every year, 15,000 -18,000 farmers end their lives, unable to pull themselves out of the financial crisis they face. And the rope that finally hangs them is, loans they took from local bloodsucking loan sharks, who, knowing the desperate needs of farmers, lend them money at merciless rates.
Small and micro-farmers are people who survive on frugal resources. But they try to cultivate their crops, so that by the end of the year or by the end of the harvesting period, they can earn some money to feed their families and care for their needs. But uncertainties make cultivation a gamble. Rains can fail them. Markets can nullify all their efforts to near nothing with poor rates. In spite of all these factors that can ruin their chances, they choose to cultivate, because that has been their only source of livelihood for years and decades.
For these farmers, years pass with a lot of struggle and belief that they can win back all that they lost with one bumper crop. They bet on this belief and start borrowing, to fund input costs like buying seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc., while their ability to repay them remains totally dependent on the year's crop yield, and the price they would get for it. Awaiting them, they hold back important expenses, even events like marriages in the family. And as expected, if they get a high yield and higher procurement price for their crop, things may fair well. They may even be able to save a little cash for their families, after paying back the lenders. But if the crops fail, their hopes to fund their needs would crumble. And lenders will be ready to hound them. Some lose hope and in despair kill themselves.
Many statistical data indicate that majority of farmers who commit suicides are cotton growers. Knowing how cotton farmers end up in a financial turmoil can tell us how farmers, in general, fall into a complex financial trap.
"Cotton is a cash crop. It's also called white gold. In good times cotton growers reaped rich dividends. But today the scenario is different. Cotton procurement rates have fallen, while its input rates are soaring high, especially cost of seeds and pesticides.
Globally cotton is the single largest crop in terms of pesticide usage. In just 2.5% of world's cotton cultivated area, nearly 16% of the world's total pesticides are being used. In India, 55% of its total pesticides are used for cotton alone. So what affects them is not just the high input cost of cotton. Prolonged excess use of agrochemicals leads to erosion of soil as well. Today, their lands are no longer as fertile as they once used to be.
Even worse is the plight of farmers cultivating GMO(Genetically Modified) Cotton. Environmental activists studying the impact of GM seeds say that these farmers are stuck in an endless quagmire dug by Multinational Biotechnology companies like Monsanto. According to 2011 stats, GM cotton was cultivated in nearly 88% of India's cotton area, making India the largest cultivator of GM cotton in the world.
GM seeds are sold at high prices with promises of high yield with low use of pesticides. Even traditional cultivators of other food crops get lured by these claims and switch to GM cotton cultivation. But GM Cotton growers may end up spending more on pesticides than those who cultivate native seed variants of cotton, as pests can develop resistance to the strain of these GM seeds. Now to save their crop, they must address the sudden unexpected need for buying more pesticides. They go to the local loan sharks, who lend them high-risk loans at unimaginable rates like 60 - 85% per annum. Some even trap them, by compelling them to commit to low procurement rates, in exchange for the loan and its interest. Eventually, debt-ridden farmers stuck in an endless loop of financial crisis end up committing suicide."
Farmers, in general, face a number of these problems confronted by cotton growers, like soil erosion, failed monsoons, depleted ground water tables, drought conditions, eventual crop failure, and debts they can't repay. There are also a number of other global factors that affect farmers, like climate change on the natural front, withdrawal of subsidies from the government - due to free trade agreements with the WTO (World Trade Organization) and its member nations, seed patenting, seed manipulation by biotech companies and commodity trading.
Ultimately, farmers are falling prey to the greed of rich nations and large corporates, that exploits them, by stealing away their livelihood, even their lives, to garner huge profits and royalties. Waiving of farm loans granted by nationalized banks and cooperative societies is a welcome move from several state governments, but it may not help small and micro-level farmers who have taken unregulated loans from private lenders. Crop insurance is another good effort from the central government. But to revive agriculture as a viable business for farmers, and to save their lives and their families, still much needs to be done.