MUMBAI/NEW DELHI — Farmer Ganpatram Bheda, 66, fears he will lose his two acres of land in northwest India after scarce rainfall and extreme cold in recent years hit crop yields, trapping him in a web of loans with little help from the state to overcome his financial woes. As small-scale Indian farmers like Bheda grapple with growing climate uncertainties,...
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI — Farmer Ganpatram Bheda, 66, fears he will lose his two acres of land in northwest India after scarce rainfall and extreme cold in recent years hit crop yields, trapping him in a web of loans with little help from the state to overcome his financial woes.
For more than two decades, rural India has struggled with farmer suicides, as consecutive years of drought, poor harvests and costly animal feed have fuelled debt and mental anxiety. In particular, they are exacerbating economic pressures on farmers through recurring droughts, she said. While the Indian government has some support programmes in place for farmers, including crop insurance and a rural job guarantee scheme, those suffer from poor budgeting and patchy implementation, said campaigners for farmers’ rights.In the last four years, he has accrued loans amounting to four million rupees from local moneylenders and banks to tide him over crop losses, buy expensive fodder for his cows and pay off other debts.
Her team studied rainfall patterns between 2014 and 2021 in drought-prone Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana states, which recorded the highest farmer suicides, and found more cases during periods of below-normal rainfall. Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee , a collective of academics and campaigners which tracks the scheme’s implementation, recorded a 30per cent fall in the work created this year up to April, compared to the same period last year.
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