ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the findings and policy prescriptions of three important studies related to farmers’ suicides to understand the factors that lead to unviable distress among farmers. The first study is the Farmers’ Distress and Agricultural Market Imperfections carried out in four representative Indian states that had suffered an agrarian crisis leading to farmers’ suicides. The study covered the families of those farmers who died by suicide in AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab. The findings of this study, carried out in 2008, are discussed in detail to list the causes of farmers’ suicides and also policy prescriptions suggested with the view that such an analysis can help in identifying core areas of concern in the states and districts affected by farmers’ suicides. The second study is on the Assessment of PM’s Rehabilitation Package for Farmers in Suicide-Prone Districts in AP, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. This study, carried out in 2010, has covered major suicide-prone states in the Deccan Plateau and has the advantage of having field evidence of the impact of a massive rehabilitation package begun in 2006 in these states. The third study, completed in 2017, namely Farmer Suicides: An All India Study, covers thirteen states with the objectives of probing into the causes of farmers’ suicides and suggesting solutions. These studies probe the genesis of the problems and recommended short-term, medium-term and long-term rescue project activities to assuage the families of suicide victims.
