Agrarian Crisis and Farmers Suicides in AP

Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and AP Rytu Swarajya Vedhika

1995-2012

Crisis in Indian Agriculture

• Andhra Pradesh recorded the first major spate of farmers suicides 1986 when more than 100 farmers committed suicide in Guntur and Prakasham districts with failure of cotton due to high white fly incidence

• Second major spate of farmers suicides were seen in 1997-99 when cotton crop failed in Warangal, Karimnagar districts due to high incidence of bollworms. More than 3,000 farmers were reported to have end their lives

• Third major spate of farmers suicides were started in 2004 with more than 2500 suicides were reported and this time it was all kinds of farmers.

• Since 1995 Maharashtra also started reported farmers suicides particularly from Vidharba region which is largely cotton growing in rainfed areas

What does governments say?• Governments tend to deny the problem and attribute other

reasons for the tragedy• As a long term strategy governments talk about low carrying

capacity of agriculture and moving people out of agriculture (Draft Agril Policy, Govt of AP, 1999)

• Privatising extension and market services withdrawl of government from providing basic services (Draft Agril Policy, Govt of AP, 1999, Approach Paper to AP Agril, Ashok Gulati 2008)

• Technological solutions like synthetic pyrethroids or Bt cotton• Crop diversification to high value crops (Draft Agril Policy, Govt

of AP, 1999, Approach Paper to AP Agril, Ashok Gulati 2008)

What does census say?

(40.87%)

(27.74 %)

(39.64 %)

(22.52 %)

(43.04 %)

(16.47 %)

(68.61 %)(62.16 %)

(59.51 %)

• In last one decade 13,68,012 people have left farming and most of them became agriculture workers

• This is on average 375/day

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Farmers suicides in India

No. of suicides

Source: NCRB 1995-2012

Total 2,84,694 in 18 years

http://www.agrariancrisis.in

The table only includes States whose annual averages have risen or fallen by over 100 farm farm suicides between the to periods. It also treats Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh as one unit for data purposes.Source: NCRB Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India Reports 1995-2012

Average (2004-12)

Average (1995-03)

Difference

Andhra Pradesh 2376 1613 763Assam 310 159 152Jharkand 109 8 101Madhya Pradesh+Chhattisgarh* 2513 2327 186Maharashtra 3745 2656 1089

*MP state was formed in 2001

Increasing crisis

Farmers Suicides in India, 2012

Four major cotton growing states form 68% of the suicidesAP and Maharashtra form 46 %

Source: NCRB 1995-2012, http://www.ncrb.nic.in

Total 13754

http://www.agrariancrisis.in

Farmers Suicides in India, 2011

Four major cotton growing states form 64% of the suicidesAP and Maharashtra form 40 %

Source: NCRB 1995-2012, http://www.ncrb.nic.in

Total 14027

http://www.agrariancrisis.in

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Farmers suicides in Andhra Pradesh

NCRB data State Govt Recognised

Source: NCRB 1995-2012 http://www.ncrb.nic.in

Total 35,898 in 18 years

http://www.agrariancrisis.in

Farmers Suicides in Andhra Pradesh

Source: NCRB, 2012, http://www.ncrb.nic.in http://www.agrariancrisis.in

Total: 14,516 Avg 1613/year Total: 21,382 Avg 2375/year

Year

Suicides according to NCRB

Recognised by AP Govt

1995 1196 01996 1706 01997 1097 01998 1813 1041999 1974 1802000 1525 1922001 1509 2562002 1896 3212003 1800 3042004 2666 11782005 2490 6542006 2607 5612007 1797 5122008 2105 4882009 2414 3212010 2525 2592011 2206 2602012 2572 93

Total 35898 5683

• 5241: Total farmers suicides recognized as genuine • 4879: Total families the study team met• Caste wise distribution

– Backward classes: 2594– Other classes: 1362– Scheduled castes: 590– Scheduled tribes: 382

• 3284: families receiving widow pension• 561: families do not have ration card• 2358: families not having pucca house, no

sanction under INDIRAMMA housing scheme• 1109: families benefited under INDIRAMMA• 3787: families still struggling to earn their

livelihoods• In the one lakh rupees paid as exgratia

expenditure was• 46% to pay old loans• 22% agriculture investments• 17% miscellaneous expenditure

– In the 50 thousand as loan resettlement 45% was to clear off bank loans

Rehabilitating victim families

Major Reasons • Increasing costs of cultivation due to

– high input use– increasing costs of inputs, and – decreasing subsidies

• Stagnating yields– Soil fertility going down– Monoculture of crops– Crops spreading into areas unsuitable for them

• Shift to water intensive crops leading to – Ground water depletion– Failure of tubewells

• Decreasing prices– Lower MSPs– Increasing price fluctuations after opening up of markets

Increasing small holdersCategory No of holdings (in lakhs) Area (lakh ha) Average land holding (ha)

1995-96 2000-01 2010-11 1995-96 2000-01 2010-11 1995-96 2000-01 2010-11

Marginal(< 1ha)

63(59.42)

70.23(60.91)

8484.24(63.95)

29.04(20.20)

31.04(21.56)

3737.27(26.08)

0.46 0.44 0.44

Small(1 to 2 ha)

22.62(21.33)

25.18(21.84)

2929.18(22.15)

32.29(22.47)

35.65(24.75)

4141.19(28.83)

1.43 1.42 1.41

Semi medium

(2 to 4 ha)

13.95(13.16)

14.23(12.34)

1313.99(10.62)

37.36(25.99)

37.95(26.36)

3636.84(25.78)

2.68 2.67 2.6363

Subtotal 99.57(93.91)

109.64(95.08)

127.42(96.72)

98.69(68.67)

104.64(72.67)

115.3(80.69)

Medium(4 to 10 ha)

5.63(5.31)

5.01(4.34)

33.97(3.01)

32.31(22.48)

28.55(19.83)

2222.08(15.45)

5.74 5.7 5.5656

Large(> 10 ha)

0.83(0.78)

0.66(0.57)

0.3535(0.2727)

12.73(8.86)

10.80(7.5)

55.50(3.85)

15.34 16.36 15.5050

Total 106.03(100)

115.31(100)

131.73(100)

143.73(100)

143.99(100)

142.88(100)

1.36 1.25 1.0808

Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics – 2012.(figures in parentheses are percentage of total)

No. of holdingsClass No. of Holdings Growth rate

2005-06 2010-11

Marginal (0.5-1.0 ha) 74,17,460 84,27,700 13.58

Small (1.0-2.0 ha) 26,39,110 29,18,370 10.58

Semi-Medium (2.0-4.0 ha) 14,44,080 13,99,120 -3.11

Medium (4.0-10.0 ha) 4,87,430 3,97,260 -18.50

Large (above 10.0 ha) 56,040 35,650 -36.38

Total 1,20,44,120 1,31,75,100 9.39

Increasing tenancy

Loan Elgibility Cards

2011-12 2012-13No.of Cards Reissued 0 244082Fresh Issues 576147 179243Total Cards Issued 576147 423325No.of farmers accessed loan 197747 126157% of Farmers accessed loan 34 30

• Increasing tenancy• 40 lakh tenant farmers• Increasing tenancy• No access to credit, insurance, compensations

• During 2012-13 against the target

of Rs. 37,127.77 crore (Rs.

23,827.50 cr kharif target) loans

disbursed were 23,282.82 cr.

• Target was also to cover 12 lakh

tenant farmers (2000 cr) but only

Rs. 183 cr was sanctioned

• Among the targeted 12 lakh

tenant farmers loan elgibility

cards were given only to 4.23

lakhs (1.79 lakhs new and

remaining 2.44 were renewed)

and among them only 1.26 lakh

tenant farmers have got access to

credit

• Total amount sanctioned as loan is

Rs. 183.03 and more than half of it

goes to West Godavari district

Decreasing access to credit

Type of

Location

Number of Branches as on

March 31,2005 March 31, 2006 March 31, 2012

Rural 2,829 (47.19) 2,852 (46.42) 33,245(36.55)

Semi Urban 1,365 (22.72) 1,394 (22.69) 22,327(26.21)

Urban 1,206 (20.12) 1,278 (20.80) 22,096(23.61)

Metropolitan 594 (9.90) 619 (10.07) 11,210(13.63)

Total 5,994 6,143 88,878

Cotton Yields and Farmers Suicides in Andhra Pradesh

Source: NCRB, 2012, http://www.ncrb.nic.in, Cotton yields DES data http://www.agrariancrisis.in

Cotton yields in Andhra Pradesh (Lint in kg/ha)

Cotton yields DES data http://www.agrariancrisis.in

1980-81* 1990-91* 2000-2001** 2010-11**Crop Gross

Cropped area

% Gross Cropped

Area

% Gross Cropped

Area

% Gross Cropped

Area

%

Paddy 1453 28.92 2418.4 56.16 4243 36.40 4752 42.42Coarse cereals

1796.4 35.76239.8

5.57 1514 12.99 1137 10.15Wheat 4.1 0.08 0.5 0.01 11 0.09 10 0.09Pulses 437.9 8.72 620 14.40 1902 16.31 2131 19.02Oilseeds 990.9 19.72 740.9 17.21 2697 23.13 2472 22.07Cotton 232.8 4.63 93.7 2.18 1022 8.77 1784 15.93Sugar cane

77.4 1.54144.4

3.35 217 1.86 192 1.71Tobacco 31.2 0.62 48.5 1.13 52 0.45 157 1.40Grand Total 5023.7 100.00 4306.20 100.00 11658 100.00 11202 112.79

Source: * A.Vaidyanathan (2005) Report on the analysis of data of cost of cultivation surveys undertaken by the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics CULTURAL ECONOMICS and DES 2010-11 Season & Crop Report.

Changing Cropping patterns (in lakh ha)

Cotton yields DES data http://www.agrariancrisis.in

Increasing Cotton Area 1956-2011

Problems in estimating yields• Considerable divergence exists between yields obtained from Crop

Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and those from Comprehensive Scheme (CS Scheme) to study Cost of Cultivations both by Department of Economics and Statistics (DES) of Ministry of Agriculture

• In the last ten years between 2001-01 to 2009-10 on average the yields estimated by CCEs were lower than CS Scheme across crops viz., – Paddy (19.7%)– Maize (10.80%)– Tur (17.12%)– Soybean (16.41%)– Groundnut (-0.82%)– Cotton (301.97%)

• CACP takes the yields from the CS scheme significantly underestimating per quintal cost of production.

• CACP collects the data from CS Scheme through 5800 centres through the state agriculture universities where as the CCEs are done across 9,73,184 centres with the help of State Governments.

Year CCEs CS Scheme % Deviation

2000-01 2.77 12.42 348.93

2001-02 2.88 13.41 365.65

2002-03 2.30 17.66 668.62

2003-04 3.84 21.01 447.32

2004-05 3.16 18.05 471.12

2005-06 3.47 12.40 257.12

2006-07 3.81 21.77 470.72

2007-08 5.23 23.55 349.99

2008-09 4.34 17.83 311.12

410.10

Deviation between CCE and CSS estimates Cotton

Crop A2+FL/ha C2/ha A2+FL/q C2/q C3/q Yield q/ha

Implicit price/q

MSP/q

Paddy 35104.50 54202.54 603.62 932.35 1033.43 54.69 1122.25 1050

Cotton 27204.15 42919.35 1525.73 2405.53 2547.15 17.53 2905.54 3000

Jower 16012.21 23757.04 1000.62 1429.67 1572.64 14.17 1452.57 540

Maize 26735.73 35564.55 576.95 531.69 917.69 44.25 547.34 540

Redgram 16519.59 30960.04 1674.31 3149.79 3465.00 9.50 4316.33 2300

Moong 7351.55 12624.29 2340.03 4013.55 4414.92 3.14 5103.19 2750

Blackgram 14304.52 25555.33 1615.53 2554.59 3207.54 5.54 4422.75 2520

Groundnut 24771.12 35699.44 1765.24 2537.04 2791.30 13.27 2312.25 2100

Cost estimations for 2009-10

CACP classification

Suggestions for immediate action• A comprehensive relief and rehabilitation package needs to be evolved to address the distress conditions of

bereaved families. – Enough to take care of the problems related to immediate debt relief (public and private), release of land from mortgage,

livelihood support (agriculture and non agriculture), education of the children and health needs– widow pension to the tune of Rs.5000/- per month to meet the survival needs of the family – simplifying the procedures of proving the case. The implementation of special package should be given to Panchayat and block

offices.– The categorization of suicides into “genuine” and not genuine should be immediately scrapped. – Linking of all the deceased families with all existing government schemes on special priority is necessary. Schemes like

MGNREGA, subsidized food grains of at least 35 kgs, insurance and pensions.

• Address the issues of the families in extreme distress conditions and on the verge of suicide without waiting for a suicide to happen. This could include: debt relief, insurance coverage, release of land under mortgage, linking with existing food schemes etc.

• The government should invest more in support of sustainable agriculture• Immediately expand and revise the MSPs to remunerative levels, and initiate procurement operations. The prices

should provide the farmers sufficient margins above their actual cost of cultivation. Timely and effective procurement directly from the farmers by government agencies such as FCI and CCI should be ensured, for paddy and cotton as well as dryland crops.

• Provide effective crop insurance and credit to majority of farmers including tenant farmers and non-loanee farmers and ensure proper implementation.

Addressing the root cause• The government should introduce a “Price Compensation” system, especially for all the food crops

where MSP is declared. Whenever the MSPs or actual market prices do not meet the target price (equal to Cost of Cultivation + 50%), the shortfall should be paid to the farmer directly. The farmer should no longer be forced to bear the burden of keeping food prices low for consumers.

• Government should ensure income security for all farm households, including resorting to direct income support for covering living costs for dignified livelihoods if other measures don’t provide the same.

• Promote sustainable agriculture that will reduce costs of cultivation and reduce crop risk by agri-diversity based and agro-ecological farming. A programmatic thrust along with appropriate and adequate support systems is required to spread sustainable agriculture like the CMSA program in Andhra Pradesh. The importance of grassroots farmer institutions cannot be overemphasized.

• For rainfed areas which constitute about 60% of the total cultivated area in India, there should be a comprehensive mission to sustain agriculture and farmer livelihoods. This should be focused on diverse cropping systems, ensuring protective irrigation and strengthening livestock based livelihoods. Government investments in rainfed areas should be immediately doubled.

• Provide bank credit to the farmers with adequate scale of finance, increase priority sector lending for agriculture and ensure correct implementation to reach small farmers.

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