Vyas committee report

Another recent report is on “Flow of Credit to Agriculture and Related Activities from the Banking System.” It suggests a two-stage reorganization of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to consolidate their functioning. This will help them scale up their operations, utilize manpower optimally, have greater autonomy and infuse professionalism while retaining their rural focus.

Insurance schemes for farmer’s problem

The farmer’s problem is rooted in his exposure to risk – yield as well as price shocks. Insurance schemes may be devised to mitigate these. This can be done in three possible ways. Credit insurance can look into the credit default. A fund with contribution from the creditor, the debtor and the Government may be created for this. Appropriate mechanisms to look into its modus operandi should be devised. Crop insurance will be linked with yield risk. Implementation of this should be village and if possible plot of land specific. Theft of crop and loss due to fire or other calamities should be taken into consideration while administering this. The earlier mentioned information bureau could also help in this endeavour. Income insurance will address the poor returns, particularly for marginal and small farmers and also tenants. The poor returns could be because of poor prices, low yields or high transaction costs arising out of low quantity of produce.

Farmers of Junagadh district in India's western state of Gujarat have incurred losses as heavy rains

"The first rainfall was good for the crop. We sprayed fertilisers in the field. We even took loans from the bank to grow crop but the rains ruined it completely. Now we are left with nothing, we are almost unemployed now," said Vinod Parmar, a farmer.
Now, the farmers are praying gods to be generous and further seek help from the government.
"In field cultivation, there are quite a lot of crops of groundnuts and sugarcane, which has damaged that, will have an effect on the farmers' income. Hopefully, if the rain gods are generous enough, they (farmers) might make good with the current season of the groundnuts. But what about the losses? I pray somebody takes care of that," said Jerey Fernandez, another farmer.
The monsoons this year have been particularly heavy across India, causing floods in many areas and devastation of property worth hundreds of millions of rupees.
India is basically an agriculture economy and about 600 million of the billion-plus population depends on agriculture for their livelihood

Water management Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) and the RIDF

In the selected districts where agriculture is largely rainfall dependent, strategies to increase irrigation potential (particularly, through watershed development), should be devised so as to provide scope to increase value addition. The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS), the National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) and the RIDF can be used for this. Expedite the completion of already initiated irrigation projects. For completed projects take measures that ensures utilization is up to potential, and there is better utilization of water through drip/sprinkler.

Distribution of Methods of Committing Suicides

Distribution of methods of committing suicide by sex across districts/divisions of Maharashta for 2001-4 is given in Table 3.1h in Annexure 5. The distribution for Maharashtra is as follows. For male suicide deaths: 34 per cent were by consuming insecticides, 8 per cent were by consuming other poison, 10 per cent were by drowning, 7 per cent were by self-immolation and the remaining 8 per cent were by other methods. For female suicide deaths, 30 per cent were by consuming insecticides, 8 per cent were by consuming other poison, 18 per cent were by hanging, 15 per cent were by drowning, 26 per cent were by self-immolation and the remaining 3 per cent were by other methods. This shows that across gender there are some differences.
The maximum proportion of suicide deaths are by insecticide consumption for both males and females. The second most common method was hanging by males whereas it was self-immolation by females. In fact, hanging by males has the maximum proportion in the divisions of Konkan and Pune and self-immolation by females has the maximum proportion in the divisions of Konkan, Nagpur and Pune. Across division, the proportion of suicide deaths by drowning is relatively much higher in Nagpur for both males and females. The involvement of females in household work brings them in close proximity to fire in the kitchen and the well for fetching water. Spur of the moment decisions might lead them to using these methods. Suicide death through burns and to some extent drowning could conceal homicide, which mostly arises out of domestic violence (see Kumar, 2003). Some of these are dowry deaths.25
In the selected districts of Washim and Yavatmal the proportion committing suicide by consuming insecticide is much higher than the state average: 59 per cent for males and 51 per cent for females in Washim and 76 per cent for males and 68 per cent for females in Yavatmal. In Wardha, the proportion committing suicide by consuming other poison (22 per cent for males and 23 per cent for females) is much higher than the state average and together with consumption of insecticide it accounts for 61 per cent of male and 53 per cent of female suicides.
Insecticide/pesticide is most commonly available in farming households (particularly, those cultivating Cotton). Thus, suicide deaths by consumption of insecticides would largely be individuals in these households. Spur of the moment decision will lead to use of this fatal method because of its easy availability. We have mentioned earlier that cotton cultivation uses nearly 90 per cent of the total pesticides used across five major crops in Maharashtra (section 2.4). Restrictions on its easy availability can help reduce incidences of suicide with such a fatal method. In this regard, important policy lessons can be taken from Sri Lanka’s experience (see references in Gunnell and Eddleston, 2003).

Education-wise and Marital Status wise Suicide Mortality Rates in Maharashtra

Education wise and marital status wise average SMRs per annum across districts/divisions by sex in Mahrarashtra for the period 2001-4 are given in Table 3.1e and 3.1f in Annexure 5. Education wise SMRs in Maharashtra are as follows. For males it is 8.4 for ‘no education’, 28.9 for primary education completed, 42.7 for middle school completed, 31.5 for matriculates and 11.1 for higher secondary and above whereas for females it is 4.7 for ‘no education’, 17.6 for primary education completed, 31.9 for middle school completed, 23.7 for matriculates and 8.2 for higher secondary and above.
The patterns are similar in the divisions indicating that the peak SMR is among the middle school education category. The exception is maximum SMR for matriculates among education group in Amravati division for both males and females. In the selected districts, including Washim and Yavatmal from Amravati division, the pattern is similar to that for Maharashtra. This is so because in Akola, Amravati and Buldhana districts SMR is the highest for matriculates across education groups. In all the districts of Amravati division middle school and matriculates either have the maximum or the second highest SMR across education groups. This means that those with 7-10 years of schooling have relatively greater risk.
AsAs in age-specific subgroups, education wise subgroups in Amravati and Nagpur divisions as well as in the three selected districts have by and large greater SMRs than the subgroup average for Maharashtra state. The exceptions are ‘no education’ male and female SMRs and ‘middle school’ female SMR in Nagpur division, and ‘no education’ male SMR in Wardha districts.
Marital status wise SMRs in Maharashtra are – not married: 8.7 males, 6.8 females; married: 30.6 males, 15.4 females; widowed: 38.7 males, 7.0 females; and divorced/separated: 135.9 males, 30.3 females. Across marital status category, SMR is the maximum for divorced/separated for both male`s and females. This pattern holds across all divisions with the exception being for females in Aurangabad and Pune divisions where the maximum SMR across marital status categories is among married.
The marital status subgroups in Amravati and Nagpur divisions and the selected districts also have SMRs higher than that for the subgroup average for Maharashtra state. The exceptions are ‘divorced/separated’ male SMR in Amravati division, male and female SMRs in Washim and Yavatmal districts and ‘widowed’ male SMR in Wardha district. This means that, compared to the state average for that subgroup, never married and married males in Amravati division have a greater disadvantage.

Age-specific Suicide Mortality Rates

For ease of analysis, we divide the data into two periods 1998-2000 and 2001-2004. As indicated earlier, the latter period is identified with higher male SMR in some regions.In 2001-4, Maharashtra’s age-specific SMRs are as follows. For males it is 0.9 for 5-14 years, 19.9 for 15-29 years, 34.4 for 30-44 years, 35.0 for 45-59 years and 20.5 for 60+ years whereas for females it is 1.0 for 5-14 years, 20.2 for 15-29 years, 15.1 for 30-44 years, 10.8 for 45-59 years and 5.8 for 60+ years. Across divisions, Amravati and Nagpur seem to have relatively higher SMRs and also the ones where the absolute increase in male SMRs was relatively higher. In these two divisions, excluding age group of 5-14 years, male SMRs increased in all other age groups and the increases are particularly notable in Amravati division.
In the three selected districts, age adjusted SMR increased in Wardha by 9.5 points (from 38.1 to 47.6), in Washim by 6.7 points (from 26.5 to 33.2) and in Yavatmal by 8.3 points (from 38.3 to 46.0). Notable increase in age-specific male SMRs are in the age groups of 15-29 years (by 25.3 points, from 29.9 to 55.3) and 30-44 years (by 11.1 points, from 65.0 to 76.1) in Wardha, in the age groups 45-59 years (by 30.4 points, from 36.6 to 67.0) and 60+ years (by 29.8 points, from 7.7 to 37.5) in Washim and in the age groups of 15-29 years (by 10.3 points, from 40.9 to 51.2), 30-44 years (by 13.9 points, from 62.8 to 76.7) and 45-59 years (by 13.0 points, from 67.1 to 80.1) in Yavatmal. Across age groups, SMR for males in Maharashtra was the maximum in the early middle age group of 30-44 years in 1998-2000 and shifted to the late middle age group of 45-59 years in 2001-4. This pattern seems to have been the case in the divisions of Amravati, Aurangabad, Konkan and Nagpur and also in the selected districts of Washim and Yavatmal whereas in Wardha district the shift was reversed with maximum male SMRs for 45-59 years in 1998-2000 and 30-44 years in 2001-4.
The former pattern (shift in maximum SMR from early middle age to late middle age) explains that people those who are now entering into a stage of getting their children married and are in the process of training them the tricks of the trade.The latter pattern (shift in maximum SMR from early middle age to late middle age) would indicate greater years of life lost. If he is a cultivator then his is likely to be one with less years of experience in farming. He may be willing to take greater risks expecting higher returns, but a failure can be catastrophic.
In both the time periods, SMR for females, as is the case at the all India level, is the maximum in the youth age group of 15-29 years. An exception to this is in our study district Wardha where maximum female SMR is in 30-44 years. An important feature of age-specific SMR is that among children (5-14 years) and youth (15-29 years) female SMR is greater than male SMR. This along with the fact that SMR for females is the maximum among youth (15-29 years) indicates that years of life lost among females will be proportionately more than their proportion of total suicide deaths. It is said that higher SMR for females in this age group could be an outcome of domestic conflict such as dowry harassment.23 Or, they could be because of other forms of female victimization such as suspected illicit relationship, not having children, cancellation/non-settlement of marriage, physical abuse, illegitimate pregnancy and divorce. Some of the reported female suicides could even be homicides in the guise of suicide or accident.

The trends over the years show that male SMR seems to have increased

The trends over the years show that male SMR seems to have increased with jumps: by 7.8 points in Amravati division in 2001, by 5.6 points in 2000 in Nagpur division, and by 2.7 points in Pune division in 2000. Trends in female SMR seem to be declining in all the divisions. Male-female SMR ratio has been increasing in all the years (exceptions are Konkan in 1999 and 2002, Nagpur in 2003, Nashik in 2004 and Pune in 1999) and in 2004 male SMR is more than double that of female SMR in Amravati, Nagpur and Pune divisions. For the three selected districts, SMRs in Yavatmal seems to be greater and Washim lower than that for Amravati division and Wardha is higher than that for Nagpur division. SMRs in Wardha are closer and for some years higher than that in Yavatmal. The trends, as in the case for their respective divisions, show that there is a jump to higher age-adjusted male SMR in Wardha in 2000 and in Washim and Yavatmal in 2001. Between 2001 and 2004, age-adjusted male SMR was the highest in 2002 and age-adjusted female SMR in 2001 in all the three districts. Male SMR is double that of female SMR in Wardha and Yavatmal districts in 2004.

Recent Suicide Trends and Patterns in Maharashtra Trends in Suicide Mortality Rate

The trends in age-adjusted SMRs in Maharashtra from 1995 to 2004 are given in Table 3.1 (for trends in age undadjusted SMR see Table 3.1a in Annexure 5).21 Further, suicide is a social phenomenon that differs across gender groups and it is appropriate to discuss about patterns in males and females separately. Age adjusted SMR for males increased from 17.4 in 1995 to 20.3 in 2004 and that for females decreased from 13.6 in 1995 to 10.8 in 2004. Absolute numbers of male suicides decreased in 1996, but thereafter it has been increasing for the whole period. For females, absolute number of suicides decreased in 1996 and then increased in the next two years, but has been declining since 1999. Age-adjusted SMR for males has not always been increasing indicating that the increase in number of suicides has not been commensurate with the increase in population. In fact, between 2001 and 2004 age-adjusted SMR for males has been in the range of 20-21. Decline in absolute female suicides when population has been increasing explains the declining age-adjusted SMR for females.

Suicide Scenario in Maharashtra

Suicide data in Maharashtra, as also in India, is compiled through police records.19 In 2001, Maharashtra constituted about 9.4 per cent of the all India population but accounted for 13.5 per cent of the total suicide deaths in the country. Suicides accounted for 2 per cent of the total deaths in the state whereas at the all India level suicides accounted for 1.3 per cent of the total deaths.20 What is the reason for the relatively higher suicide deaths in Maharashtra? In this chapter we analyse some recent trends and patterns in attempting to answer this question.

Maharashtra’s gross value addition from agriculture

In recent years, Maharashtra’s gross value addition from agriculture is relatively more from Fruits & Vegetables and Sugarcane – together these two Vegetables account for less than 8 per cent of the area under cultivation, but nearly 53 per cent of the gross value added in agriculture. These crops are largely not grown in the selected districts of Wardha, Washim and Yavatmal. The cash crops in the selected districts are Cotton and more recently Soyabean. Over the years, profitability from Cotton has declined. Some of the reasons are as follows: high subsidies by the USA leading to distortions in the international prices, low import tariff by India, failure of the MCPS in Maharashtra. At the same time, the state has been withdrawing, as is evident from, declining public investment in agriculture, poor agricultural extension, diminishing role of formal sources of credit and relatively lower public intervention programmes under MEGS in the selected districts. The farmer, now, depends on the input supplier for advice leading to supplier-induced demand and on informal sources for credit with higher interest rate thereby increasing his repayment burden. To add to these, 2004 happened to be a rain deficient year in the selected districts, but this year was one when the macro supply scenario of Cotton was good. The farmers from our selected districts were exposed to both yield as well as price shocks. To sum up, there seems to be a larger socio-economic and agrarian crisis. In the next chapter, we discuss the suicide scenario in Maharashtra.

Public Interventions: The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme

One of the important social welfare measures in the state is the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS), which has been in operation since 1970s. We would like to see the interventions in our selected districts in recent years. All our selected districts are from National Sample Survey (NSS) Inland Eastern region.16 In this region, the proportion of poor in total rural population was 32 per cent in 1999-2000. This constitutes about 23 per cent of the state’s rural poor whereas this regions share of state’s rural population is 17 per cent. The regions share of expenditure under MEGS is, however, lower than even their share of rural population and it has been declining

Credit Scenario in Rural Maharashtra

From 1995 to 2004, rural branches of all scheduled commercial banks declined from 2320 to 2241. In the study districts the absolute number of branches remained more or less the same (44 in Wardha, 87 in undivided Akola, and decreased from 70 to 66 in Yavatmal), but as proportion of total branches in the districts it showed a decline. Between triennium ending (TE) 1996-7 and TE 2003-4, rural deposits as a proportion of total deposits in the district decreased by 1 percentage point (from 26.4 per cent to 25.3 per cent) in Wardha, increased by 3.4 percentage point (from 17.3 per cent to 20.7 per cent) in undivided Akola and remained around 22 per cent in Yavatmal. Agricultural credit as per cent of total credit disbursed as per utilization has been declining from TE 1996-7 to TE 2003-4. An exception is Wardha where it first increased in TE 2000-1 and then decreased. The latter decrease could be because of an increase in credit to industry during TE 2003-4. This increase in credit to industry also explains the large increase in credit-deposit ratio during TE 2003-4 in Wardha. The credit deposit ratio for all scheduled commercial banks in the three study districts seems to have first decreased and then increased. The increase in recent years has been due to an increase in credit towards personal loans.

International and Domestic Policies Impact on Cotton Prices in India

Excess international supply at a lower price is also because of direct and indirect subsidesleading to dumping by the United States of America (USA). During the period 1998 to2003 Cotton export prices from USA were lower than their cost of production by morethan 50 per cent on average and had reached a maximum of 65 per cent in 2002 (Murphy,Lilliston and Lake, 2005). As against this, domestic policies in India have led to removalof quantitative restrictions and subsequently reduction of import tariff from 35 per cent in2001-2 to 5 per cent in 2002-3. All these exposed the domestic prices of Cotton to thevolatility of international prices. This has been adversely affecting the Cotton farmer.Similarly, excessive Cotton exports leading to an increase in yarn prices can adverselyaffect the handloom and power loom weavers. Thus, variable import and export tariffsthat guard movements in domestic prices against volatility in international prices could beof help to both producers and consumers (Ghosh, 2005).

Agricultural Production Wardha, Washim (or undivided Akola) and Yavtatmal and the state of Maharashtra

We analyse some recent changes in the agrarian scenario in the districts of Wardha, Washim (or undivided Akola) and Yavtatmal and the state of Maharashtra. Using three year moving average trends from 1990-1 to 2002-3, we give growth rates of production for selected crops
In the selected districts, the linear trend growth rate for production of Cereals was negative. This is largely explained by a negative area effect mostly for Jowar and Paddy. For these two crops, except for Paddy in Yavatmal, the yield effect has also been negative indicating that the shifts in cropping pattern are likely to be from lands with greater yield. The linear trend growth rate for Wheat was positive and this can be explained by positive area as well as yield effects. An exception is Yavatmal, where yield effect was negative. For Maharashtra state, the results are somewhat similar – linear trend growth rate for production of Cereals is negative. The share of area/production in the selected districts to total area/production for Cereals (particularly, Jowar and Paddy) in Maharashtra has declined. The share of production, particularly for Jowar, has been higher than the share of area indicating that the yield for Jowar in the study district is higher than the average for the state. Despite this, area has been declining and its share has come down. This can be explained by the fact that the share of gross value added relative to share of area under cultivation is the lowest for Jowar Linear trend growth rate for Sugarcane production has been positive and this is largely explained by a positive area effect. In Wardha, there has been a positive yield effect also. In undivided Akola, Yavatmal as well as for Maharashtra the yield effect has been negative. This negative yield effect is stronger than the area effect in Yavatmal and in this district there has been a secular decline in production in the last three years. The increase in area under Sugarcane in the selected districts despite the fact that yield of Sugarcane is lower than the state’s average is because of its advantage from gross value addition. The share of area/production under Sugarcane in the selected districts to the total area under Sugarcane in Maharashtra has increased in Wardha, but not in the other two districts.

Objectives of the Study Maharashtra farmers.

The objectives of the study are as follows:
• To analyze the agrarian scenario in Maharashtra with emphasis on the selected districts.
• To look into the trends and patterns of the recent suicide scenario in Maharashtra.
• To study the nature and extent of indebtedness among deceased farmers.
• To identify and examine other socio-economic factors leading to suicidal death by the deceased farmers.
• To compare the suicide (case) with non-suicide (control) households.
• To suggest policy measures.

Farmers’ suicides Issues

Farmers’ suicides have been receiving a lot of media attention, more so by the vernacular local dailies, in recent years. There has also been some scholarly attention.3 Over the years, agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic produce in India has reduced from 56 per cent in 1950-1 to 25 per cent in 2001-2 whereas as per the 2001 census 58 per cent of the total workers are still dependent on agriculture either as cultivators or agricultural labourers. This suggests that rural non-farm employment opportunities are limited. Between 1960-1 and 1995-6, the number of agricultural operational holdings in India increased by 2.36 times from 48.9 million to 115.6 million, but when one looks at the composition it is only the marginal (0-1 hectares) and small (1-2 hectares) size-class of farmers that increased from 51 per cent to 62 per cent. In absolute numbers, the large size-class (10 hectares & above) started declining since the 1970s and the medium size-class (4-10 hectares) since the 1980s. This suggests that dependence on agriculture is largely among the ranks of marginal and small farmers and agricultural labourers. The small and marginal farmers also bear the brunt of unavailability of water and its associated yield uncertainty. Linking of the national market with international markets has also increased the price uncertainty particularly in crops like cotton. The small and marginal farmer is, however, thinking big and willing to experiment and take risks. However, the farmer is not able to visualise that a bad monsoon leading to crop failure or a glut in the market can put him into a quagmire of indebtedness and crashing of dreams. The farmer cannot get his daughter/sister married, he cannot send his children to college for higher education or he cannot meet health expenses for the family members to mention a few of his responsibilities. This brings about a feeling of dejection and failure among some farmers who in their moments of despair think that life is not worth living any more and they end up committing suicide.