Climate Change and Its Impact on Farmer Suicides

Abstract

Like most modernizing countries, India has seen a decline in the number of individuals who engage in agriculture for a living. In the decade between 2001 and 2011, for example, the government estimates the number of Indian farmers declined by 9 million people, which marks the first absolute decline in this segment of the population since 1971. As a percentage of the populace, farmers declined by 7 percent during the last decade, and they now constitute less than a quarter of India's population. These numbers, in and of themselves, don't necessarily constitute a bad trend.

Yet one harrowing sign of the state of Indian farmers is the suicide rate. For decades Indian farmers have been committing suicide at alarming rates that are well above the rates of the population at large, which itself has been rising. Moreover, the problem does not appear to be getting any better; in fact, it is if anything worsening, despite the state's efforts to address the problem.

Poverty and debt are likely a large part of the problem. Interestingly, another likely culprit in the suicide phenomena is almost certainly climate change. Three of the "Big 5” are located along India's coast, and like many Indian farmers, rely heavily on the monsoon each year for their crops. If a drought occurs they are left without a harvest that year, despite having spent enormous amounts of money on inputs like fertilizer and seeds.

The Specific Objectives of the Present Research Paper are

• To examine the incidence of suicides of famers in these three districts of Karnataka- Chitradurga, Davanagere and Tumkur.
• To draw socio- economic profile of the farmers who are committed suicide in the three districts of Karnataka and to identify the causes there in.
•  To know the impact of climatic change on farmers suicides

Method of Study

This paper is based on a study on 227 Farmers who committed suicides during the years 2001-2007 in Chithradurga, Davanagere and Tumkur district of Karnataka.