Lok Sabha Question No. 397 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-01
Subject: Suicide by Farmers
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: JOSE K. MANI, KRISHNAN NARAYANASAMY RAMACHANDRAN, SUKENDER REDDY GUTHA, NANABHAU FALGUNRAO PATOLE, BHEEMRAO BASWANTHRAO PATIL, RAJESH RANJAN  (PAPPU  YADAV), C.S. PUTTARAJU, A.P. JITHENDER REDDY, MALLIKARJUN  KHARGE, SANKAR PRASAD DATTA, JITENDRA CHAUDHURY, KOTHA PRABHAKAR REDDY, DALPAT SINGH PARASTE, PARAYAMPARANBIL KUTTAPPAN BIJU, J.C. DIVAKAR REDDY, KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR, SHIVKUMAR CHANABASAPPA UDASI, GEETHA KOTHAPALLI, INNOCENT, RANGASWAMY DHRUVANARAYANA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.397

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE  1 ST  DECEMBER, 2015

## SUICIDE BY FARMERS

## 397.   SHRI JOSE K. MANI:

SHRI K.N. RAMACHANDRAN:

SHRI GUTHA SUKENDER REDDY:

SHRI NANA PATOLE:

SHRI BHEEMRAO B. PATIL:

SHRI RAJESH RANJAN:

SHRI C.S. PUTTA RAJU:

SHRI A.P. JITHENDER REDDY:

SHRI MALLIKARJUN KHARGE:

SHRI SANKAR PRASAD DATTA:

SHRI JITENDRA CHAUDHURY:

SHRI PRABHAKAR REDDY KOTHA:

SHRI DALPAT SINGH PARASTE:

SHRI P.K. BIJU:

SHRI J.C. DIVAKAR REDDY:

SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR:

SHRI SHIVKUMAR UDASI:

SHRIMATI KOTHAPALLI GEETHA:

SHRI INNOCENT:

SHRI R. DHRUVA NARAYANA:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE ‡ãðŠãäÓã एवं किसान िल्याण ½ãâ¨ããè be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  a  number  of  farmers  and  agricultural  workers  in  the  country  have committed  suicide  due  to  crop  failure  on  account  of  drought  situation,  inability  to payback  their loans/look after their family and  inadequate subsidy/incentive for cultivation of crops during each of the last three years and the current year;
- (b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise;
- (c) whether  funding  to  the  States  for  the  development  of  agriculture  sector  under various  agricultural  schemes/programmes  is  ineffective  to  address  the  problems  of farmers and agricultural workers in the country;
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (e) the  corrective  measures  taken/proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to address the problem of agraian crisis and prevent the farmers from committing suicide?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

‡ãðŠãäÓã एवं किसान िल्याण ½ãâ¨ããÊã¾ã ½ãñâ Àã·¾ã ½ãâ¨ããè ( SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIA )

(a) & (b): As  per  the  National  Crime  Records  Bureau  (NCRB),  Ministry  of  Home Affairs report entitled 'Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India' for the years 2012 and 2013, the total number    of suicides under the profession 'Self employment  Farming/Agriculture'  is as under:

|   Year |   No. of suicides |
|--------|-------------------|
|   2012 |             13754 |
|   2013 |             11772 |

For the year 2014, the NCRB delineated for the first time the number of suicides under two sub-categories, namely, farmers and agricultural labourers.  The number of suicides with respect to these categories due to various causes  is as under:

| Farmers                |   5650 |
|------------------------|--------|
| Agricultural labourers |   6710 |

According  to  NCRB  Report  of  2014,  the  major  causes  of  suicides  by  farmers  are  as under:

- i)  Bankruptcy or indebtedness
2. ii)  Farming  related  issues  e.g.  Failure  of  crops,  Distress  due  to  natural  calamities, inability to sell produce.
3. iii) Poverty
4. iv) Family problems
- v) Illness
6. vi) Other causes

The NCRB Report for the year 2015 has not been published.

(c)  &  (d):    The  Department  has  been  designing  and  adopting  various  schemes  and programmes  based  on  'National  Policy  on  Farmers  2007'.  In  accordance  with  the Guidelines  of  these  schemes  and  programmes  and  the  applicable  pattern  of  fund sharing  between  Centre  and  the  States,  proposals  received  from  the  various  State Governments are reviewed and allocations and releases made by the Department.  The details of allocations made to the States during the last 3 years and the current financial year (2015-16) are at Annexure .

With the acceptance and adoption of the recommendations of the 14 th Finance commission,  the  financial  devolution  to  the  States  has  risen  from  32  percent  to  42 percent of the central tax revenue.  With this the sharing pattern of the funds under the various schemes has also changed and the States are expected to share the funding by a larger margin during the year 2015-16, relative to the pre-devolution period.  The ratio of funding the schemes is largely 60:40 between Centre and States.  However, in case of North Eastern and Himalayan States, the sharing ratio is 90:10.

The Department undertakes review and monitoring of the schemes/programmes through  reports,  meetings  and  field  visits  to  ensure  that  the  States  adhere  to  the guidelines, meet expected standards and achieve the targeted outcomes.

(e): The  State  Governments  are  primarily  responsible  for  the  development  of  the agriculture sector.  The Government of India considers agriculture and allied sectors as highly critical for the welfare of the farmers and supplements the efforts of the States through appropriate policy support, schemes/programmes and budgetary support. The Govt. of India has taken several steps to revitalize the agriculture sector and improve the  conditions  of  farming  community  on  a  sustained  basis  by  increasing  public investment, improving farm practices and focusing on rural infrastructure development, extension, marketing support, etc.  Various programmes/ schemes for the development of agriculture sector are being implemented in a decentralized manner with a flexibility to the State Governments to formulate and implement appropriate projects to suit their specific requirements. The focus of the Central Government is primarily to reduce the cost  of  cultivation,  ensure  remunerative  returns  to  the  farmers,  facilitate  access  to enhanced  credit  and  improve  productivity  of  rainfed  agriculture,  which  covers  a  vast area in the country.  In this context, some specific schemes and initiatives rolled out are i)  Soil  Health  Card  to every  farmer once in a cycle of 3 years; ii) Promotion of neem coated area; iii) Promotion of organic farming under 'Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY); and iv) Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PKSY) to bring more arable land under irrigation and improve water use efficiency.

While the above interventions will improve production environment by reducing cost  of  cultivation  and  achieving  higher  productivity,  the  Department  is  implementing 'National Agriculture Market' (NAM) to create an integrated market which will improve marketing efficiency in the country and enable farmers to realize higher remunerative prices on their produce.

Other  measures  taken  by  the  Government  for  the  benefit  of  farmers  include enhancement in Minimum Support Prices (MSP) 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.

## Annexure

## LSUS Question No. 397

## Details of State-wise funds allocated on various Schemes being implemented by Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare  during 2012-13 to 2015-16

|         |                   | (Rs. In Crore )   | (Rs. In Crore )   | (Rs. In Crore )   | (Rs. In Crore )   |
|---------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
| Sl. No. | Name of the State | Year              | Year              | Year              | Year              |
|         |                   | 2012-13           | 2013-14           | 2014-15           | 2015-16           |
| 1       | Andhra Pradesh    | 1287.76           | 1212.47           | 680.49            | 462.25            |
| 2       | Arunachal Pradesh | 141.99            | 124.62            | 129.06            | 79.21             |
| 3       | Assam             | 522.90            | 632.69            | 692.76            | 371.81            |
| 4       | Bihar             | 1057.31           | 785.74            | 791.76            | 452.52            |
| 5       | Chhattisgarh      | 852.29            | 695.53            | 664.23            | 367.97            |
| 6       | Goa               | 68.95             | 28.86             | 32.86             | 12.63             |
| 7       | Gujarat           | 1009.90           | 995.36            | 1005.96           | 556.18            |
| 8       | Haryana           | 419.32            | 542.17            | 582.86            | 287.95            |
| 9       | Himachal Pradesh  | 160.66            | 143.13            | 174.19            | 92.88             |
| 10      | Jammu & Kashmir   | 220.45            | 224.24            | 256.56            | 163.48            |
| 11      | Jharkhand         | 404.48            | 468.71            | 466.85            | 238.44            |
| 12      | Karnataka         | 1065.70           | 1283.82           | 1362.34           | 708.09            |
| 13      | Kerala            | 384.10            | 380.84            | 438.71            | 186.61            |
| 14      | Madhya Pradesh    | 1045.91           | 1212.72           | 1204.22           | 710.23            |
| 15      | Maharashtra       | 1820.03           | 1914.13           | 1848.80           | 950.61            |
| 16      | Manipur           | 160.16            | 142.03            | 134.86            | 92.06             |
| 17      | Meghalaya         | 184.94            | 123.29            | 132.11            | 74.63             |
| 18      | Mizoram           | 293.89            | 222.51            | 210.44            | 114.79            |
| 19      | Nagaland          | 193.81            | 151.93            | 157.35            | 101.81            |

| 20   | Odisha               | 736.82   | 748.17   |   762.49 |   407.37 |
|------|----------------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| 21   | Punjab               | 346.24   | 613.19   |   662.11 |   287.37 |
| 22   | Rajasthan            | 874.48   | 1258.63  |  1035.69 |   738.11 |
| 23   | Sikkim               | 107.89   | 80.12    |   358.13 |    66.51 |
| 24   | Tamil Nadu           | 945.79   | 602.02   |   628.26 |   380.17 |
| 25   | Telangana            |          |          |   450.21 |   307.83 |
| 26   | Tripura              | 155.07   | 168.09   |   186.89 |    94.87 |
| 27   | Uttar Pradesh        | 1030.64  | 1278.55  |  1244.36 |   660.89 |
| 28   | Uttarakhand          | 129.75   | 159.42   |   177.73 |    98.66 |
| 29   | West Bengal          | 647.76   | 671.32   |   759.4  |   368.43 |
| 30   | Delhi                | 3.09     | 0.88     |     2.71 |     1.71 |
| 31   | Puducherry           | 2.34     | 2.09     |     2.85 |     3.34 |
| 32   | A & N Islands        | 0.81     | 5.00     |     5.95 |     8.12 |
| 33   | Lakshadweep          | 0.00     | 0.85     |     1    |     2.07 |
| 34   | Dadra & Nagar Haveli | 0.00     | 0.85     |     1.11 |     2.09 |
| 35   | Chandigarh           | 0.00     | 1.11     |     0    |     1    |
| 36   | Daman & Diu          | 0.00     | 0.00     |     0    |     1.07 |
|      | Total                | 16272.58 | 16875.08 | 17245.3  |  9453.76 |

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