Agrarian Scenario in Post-reform India:A Story of Distress, Despair and Death

Indian agriculture today is under a large crisis. An average farmer- household’s returns from cultivation would be around one thousand rupees per month. The state of the vast majority of small and marginal farmers and agricultural labourers is even worse. An extreme form of response to this crisis is the increasing incidence of farmers’ suicides. Some estimates are provided from National Sample Survey (NSS) region wise information on returns to cultivation and on some aspects of farmers’ indebtedness based on the 33rd schedule 59th round survey of 2003. It provides suicide mortality rate for farmers, non-farmers and age-adjusted population across states of India from 1995-2004 [IGIDR WP 2007-001].