Suicide by Farmers

Recent incidents of suicide by farmers due to agrarian distress during the year 2014 have been mainly reported by the State Governments of Maharashtra (204-upto April, 2014), Telangana (69- upto October, 2014), Karnataka (19 in 2014-15 so far), Gujarat (03-Upto October, 2014), Kerala (03- upto October, 2014) and Andhra Pradesh (03- upto June, 2014).

Agriculture including agricultural indebtedness being a State subject, State Governments take appropriate measures for development of agriculture sector in the State including payment of compensation to the bereaved families of suicide victims. Government of India supplements the efforts of States through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support.

Government of India has taken several steps to revitalize the agriculture sector and improve upon the condition of farming community on sustainable basis by increasing public investment, improving farm practices, rural infrastructure, extension, marketing, etc. Various programmes/ schemes for the development of agriculture sector are being implemented in a decentralized manner with flexibility to State Governments to formulate and implement appropriate projects to suit their specific requirements. The focus of Government is primarily on expansion of farm income, creation of non-farm income opportunities, improvement in productivity of rainfed agriculture, increasing coverage of farming areas under protective irrigation and forging appropriate backward and forward linkages. Other measures taken by the Government for the benefit of farmers include enhancement in minimum support prices of agricultural commodities, increase in institutional credit flow to agriculture sector, post-harvest loan for six months to eliminate distress sale of agricultural produce by farmers, debt waiver/relief, interest subvention on crop loans, revival package for strengthening Short Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure, etc.

The current budgetary allocation of Rs.22309 crore for Agriculture & Cooperation has been finalized based on requirements of various schemes/programmes in consultation of planning Commission.

This information was given today by Minister of State for Agriculture Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.

GG:CP : suicide (lok) 25.11.2014