Lok Sabha Question No. 772 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-07
Subject: Suicide by Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Srinivas Kesineni

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 772

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 7 TH  FEBRUARY, 2023

## SUICIDE BY FARMERS

## 772.   SHRI KESINENI SRINIVAS:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the number of farmer suicides has increased since 2019;
- (b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;
- (c)  whether  is  it  a  fact  that  the  number  of  tenant  farmers'  deaths  in  Andhra  Pradesh  has increased since 2019; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the list of major reasons which are responsible for suicidal deaths among farmers?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ षि एवं ककसान कल्याण मंत्री

(SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a) to (d) The  National  Crime  Records  Bureau  (NCRB)  under  the  Ministry  of  Home Affairs compiles and disseminates information on suicides in its publication titled 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides  in  India'  (ADSI).  NCRB  has  published  reports  upto  2021  which  are available on its website (https://ncrb.gov.in). As per NCRB reports, the number of farmers/ cultivaros  who  committed suicide during 2019, 2020 and 2021, state-wise, is enclosed at Annexure . No separate data on tenant farmers' suicide is published by NCRB in its ADSI Reports. The ADSI Report also does not specify separate reasons for farmers' suicide.

Agriculture  is  a  State  Subject.  However,  Government  of  India  supplements  the efforts  of  States  through  appropriate  policy  measures  and budgetary  support  and  various schemes/ programmes. The various schemes/ programmes of the Government of India for the welfare of farmers are as under:

## 1. Unprecedented enhancement in budget allocation

In  the  year  2013-14 the budget allocation of Ministry of Agriculture (including DARE) and Ministry  of  Fisheries,  Animal  Husbandry  &  Dairying  was  only  30223.88  crore.  This  has increased by more than 4.59 time to Rs. 138920.93 crore in 2022-23.

## 2. Income support to farmers through PM KISAN

Launch of PM-KISAN in 2019 -an income support scheme providing Rs. 6000 per year in 3 equal installments. More than Rs . 2.24 lakh crore has been released so far to more than 11 crore farmers as of now.

## 3. Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana (PMFBY)

Six  year  -  PMFBY was launched in 2016 addressing problems of high premium rates for farmers and reduction in sum insured due to capping. In past 6 Years of implementation 38 crore farmer applications has been enrolled and over 12.37 crore (Provisional) farmer applicants have received claims. During this period nearly Rs. 25,252 crore were paid by farmers  as  their  share  of  premium  against  which  claims  of  over  Rs.  1,30,015  crore (Provisional)  have  been  paid  to  them.  Thus  for  every  100  rupees  of  premium  paid  by farmers, they have received about Rs. 514 as claims.

## 4. Institutional credit for agriculture sector

- i. Increased from Rs. 7.3 lakh crore in 2013-14 with a target  to  reach  Rs.  18.5  lakh crore in 2022-23.
- ii. Benefit of concessional institutional credit through KCC at 4% interest per annum has also  now  been  extended  to  Animal  Husbandry  and  Fisheries  farmers  for  meeting their short-term working capital needs.
- iii. A special drive has been undertaken since February 2020 to provide concessional institutional credit with focus on covering all PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). As on 23.12.2022, 387.87 lakh new KCC applications have been sanctioned with a sanctioned credit limit of Rs. 4,49,443 crore as part of the drive.

## 5. Fixing  of  Minimum  Support  Price  (MSP)  at  one-and-a  half  times  the  cost  of production -

- i. Government  has  increased  the  MSP  for  all  mandated  Kharif,  Rabi  and  other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent over all India weighted average cost of production from 2018-19.
- ii. MSP for Paddy (common) has increased to Rs. 2040 per quintal in 2022-23 from Rs. 1310 per quintal in 2013-14.
- iii. MSP for Wheat  increased  from  Rs.  1400  per  quintal  in  2013-14  to  Rs.  2125  per quintal in 2022-23.

## 6. Promotion of organic farming in the country

- i. Paramparagat  Krishi  Vikas  Yojana  (PKVY)  was  initiated  in  2015-16  to  promote organic farming in the country. 32384 clusters have been formed and an area of 6.53 lakh  hectare  has  been  covered  benefitting  16.19  lakh  farmers.  In  addition,  Under Namami Gange Programme 123620 hectare area covered and under natural farming 4.09 lakh hectare area covered. Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand have taken-up organic farming on either side of the river Ganga to control river water pollution as well as to fetch additional income to farmers.
- ii. Government also proposes to promote sustainable natural farming systems through the scheme Bhartiya Prakratik Krishi Padhati (BPKP). The proposed scheme aims at cutting  down cost of cultivation,  enhancing farmer's income and ensuring resource conservation and, safe and healthy soils, environment and food.
- iii. Mission Organic Value Chain Development in North East Region (MOVCDNER) has been launched. 379 Farmer Producer Companies have been formed comprising of 189039 farmers and covering 172966 hectare area.

## 7. Per Drop More Crop

Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) scheme was launched in the year 2015-16 which aims to increase water use efficiency, reducing cost of inputs and increasing productivity at the farm level through Micro Irrigation technologies i.e. drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. So far, an area of 69.55 lakh hectare has been covered under Micro irrigation through the PDMC scheme from the year 2015-16.

## 8. Micro Irrigation Fund

A Micro Irrigation Fund of initial corpus Rs 5000 crore has been created with NABARD.  In the  Budget  Announcement  for  2021-22,  the  corpus  of  the  fund  is  to  be  increased  to Rs.10000 crores. Projects worth Rs 4710.96 crore covering 17.09 lakh hectares have been approved.

## 9. Promotion of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)

- i. A new Central Sector Scheme for Formation & Promotion of new 10,000 FPOs launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 29 th February, 2020 with budget outlay of Rs 6865 Crore till 2027-28.
- ii. As on 30.11.2022, 4028 no. of FPOs have been registered under new FPO scheme.
- iii. Equity Grant of Rs. 53.4 Crore has been released to 1415 FPOs as on 30.11.2022.
- iv. As on 12.12.2022, Credit Guarantee Cover worth Rs. 78 Cr. Issued to 447 FPOs.

10. A National Beekeeping and Honey Mission (NBHM) has been launched in 2020 as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to increase productivity of crops through pollination and increase in honey production as an additional source of income. Rs. 500 crore for the period 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 has been allocated for beekeeping sector. 114 projects for assistance of about Rs. 139.23 crores, approved/ sanctioned for funding under NBHM during 2020-21 & 2021-22 till date.

## 11. Agricultural Mechanization

Agricultural  mechanization  is  an  extremely  vital  to  modernize  agriculture  and  reduce drudgery of farming operations. During the period from 2014-15 to March, 2022 an amount of Rs.5490.82 crore have been allocated for agricultural mechanization. 13,88,314 numbers of  machines  and  equipments  have  been  provided  to  farmers  on  subsidy  basis.    18,824 custom hiring  centers,  403  high-tech  hubs  and  16,791  farm  machinery  banks  have  been established  to  make  available  agricultural  machines  and  equipments  to  the  farmers  on rental basis. During the current year i.e. 2022-23, so far an amount of Rs. 504.43 crores have been released for distribution of around 65302 machines on subsidy, establishment of 2804 CHCs, 12 Hi-tech hubs and 1260 Village Level Farm Machinery Banks.

## 12. Providing Soil Health Cards to farmers

Soil Health Card Scheme was introduced in the year 2014-15 to optimize usage of nutrients. The following numbers of cards have been issued to farmers;

- i. Cycle-I (2015 to 2017) - 10.74 crore
- ii. Cycle-II (2017 to 2019)- 12.19 crore
- iii. Model Village Programme (2019-20)- 23.71 lakh
- iv. In the year 2020-21- 11.52 lakh

## 13. Setting up of National Agriculture Market ( e-NAM) extension Platform

- i. 1260 mandis of 22 States and 03 UTs have been integrated to e-NAM platform.
- ii. As on 29.11.2022, more than 1.74 Crore Farmers & 2.37 Lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM portal.
- iii. Total  volume  of  6.8  Crore  MT  &  20.05  Crore  numbers  (bamboo,  betel  leaves, coconut, lemon & sweet corn) collectively worth approximately Rs. 2.33 lakh crore of trade has been recorded on e-NAM platform as on 29.11.2022.
- iv. As  on  01.12.2022,  203  Agriculture  and  allied  products  Tradable  Parameter  have been formulated for Assaying on e-NAM platform

14. Launch  of  the  National  Mission  for  Edible  Oils  -  Oil  Palm  NMEO has been approved with a total outlay of Rs 11,040 crore. This will bring an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare  under  Oil  Palm  plantation  with  3.28  lakh  hectare  in  the  north-eastern  states  and 3.22 lakh hectare in the rest of India in the next 5 years. The major focus of the Mission is to provide  Viability  Prices  of  fresh  fruit  bunches  (FFBs)  to  the  farmers  linked  with  assured procurement by industry with a simpler price fixing formula.

## 15. Agri Infrastructure Fund (AIF)

Since inception of AIF in the year 2020, the scheme has sanctioned an amount of Rs.14170 crore worth agriculture infrastructure in the country for 19191 projects. With the support of the scheme, various agriculture infrastructures were created and some of the infrastructure are at the final stage of completion. These infrastructures include 8215 warehouses, 3076 primary processing units, 2123 custom hiring centres, 992 sorting & grading units, 728 cold store projects, 163 assaying units and around 3632 other kinds of post-harvest management projects and community farming assets.

## 16. Improvement in farm produce logistics, Introduction of Kisan Rail.

Kisan Rail has been launched by Ministry of Railways to exclusively cater to movement of perishable  agrihorti  commodities.  First  Kisan  Rail  was  started  in  July  2020.  Till  31 st December, 2022, 2359 services on 167 routes have been operated.

## 17. MIDH - Cluster Development Programme:

The  Cluster  Development  Programme  (CDP)  is  designed  to  leverage  geographical specialisation of horticulture clusters and promote integrated and market-led development of pre-production, production, post-harvest, logistics, branding, and  marketing  activities. DA&FW has identified 55 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot phase of the CDP.

## 18. Creation of a Start-up Eco system in agriculture and allied sector

So far, 1102 Startups during FY 2019-20 to 2022-23 have been finally selected by different knowledge  partners  and  agribusiness  incubators  of  DA&FW.  A  total  of  Rs.  66.83  crore grants-in-aid has been released for funding to these Startups to the respective Knowledge Partners  (KPs)  &  RKVY  RAFTAAR  Agri  Business  Incubator  (R-ABIs)  as  grants-in-aid support by DA&FW.

## 19. Achievement in Export of Agri and Allied Agri- Commodities

The country has witnessed emphatic growth in export of agri and allied commodities. As compared to previous year 2020-21, the Agri and allied export has increased from 41.86 billion USD in 2020-21 to 50.24 billion USD in 2021-22 i.e. an increase of 19.99%.

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## LS-USPQ-772-07.02.2023

## State/UT wise Suicides by farmers during 2019-2021

| S L   | State/UT                   | 2019                  | 2020                 | 2021                  |
|-------|----------------------------|-----------------------|----------------------|-----------------------|
| S L   | State/UT                   | Farmers/ Cultivator s | Farmers/ Cultivators | Farmers/ Cultivator s |
| 1     | Andhra Pradesh             | 628                   | 564                  | 481                   |
| 2     | Arunachal Pradesh          | 0                     | 1                    | 0                     |
| 3     | Assam                      | 26                    | 12                   | 153                   |
| 4     | Bihar                      | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 5     | Chhattisgarh               | 233                   | 227                  | 71                    |
| 6     | Goa                        | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 7     | Gujarat                    | 3                     | 5                    | 0                     |
| 8     | Haryana                    | 0                     | 0                    | 13                    |
| 9     | Himachal Pradesh           | 12                    | 6                    | 13                    |
| 10    | Jharkhand                  | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 11    | Karnataka                  | 1331                  | 1072                 | 1170                  |
| 12    | Kerala                     | 22                    | 57                   | 34                    |
| 13    | Madhya Pradesh             | 142                   | 235                  | 117                   |
| 14    | Maharashtra                | 2680                  | 2567                 | 2640                  |
| 15    | Manipur                    | 0                     | 1                    | 0                     |
| 16    | Meghalaya                  | 0                     | 4                    | 3                     |
| 17    | Mizoram                    | 22                    | 4                    | 0                     |
| 18    | Nagaland                   | 0                     | 0                    | 1                     |
| 19    | Odisha                     | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 20    | Punjab                     | 239                   | 174                  | 171                   |
| 21    | Rajasthan                  | 2                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 22    | Sikkim                     | 0                     | 6                    | 8                     |
| 23    | Tamil Nadu                 | 6                     | 79                   | 61                    |
| 24    | Telangana                  | 491                   | 466                  | 352                   |
| 25    | Tripura                    | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 26    | Uttar Pradesh              | 108                   | 87                   | 13                    |
| 27    | Uttarakhand                | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 28    | West Bengal                | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 29    | A & N Islands              | 5                     | 6                    | 2                     |
| 30    | Chandigarh                 | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 31    | D&N Haveli and Daman & Diu | 7 +                   | 6 @                  | 14 @                  |
| 32    | Delhi UT                   | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 33    | Jammu & Kashmir            | 0 *                   | 0 @                  | 1 @                   |
| 34    | Ladakh@                    | -                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 35    | Lakshadweep                | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
| 36    | Puducherry                 | 0                     | 0                    | 0                     |
|       | TOTAL (ALL INDIA)          | 5957                  | 5579                 | 5318                  |