Climate-stressed Indian farmers seek to escape debt and suicide
What’s the context?
India's farmers face mounting losses as drought worsens, with some even driven to suicide, spurring calls for social protection to ease the pressure
- About 30 farmers died by suicide daily in 2021
- Climate change exacerbates agrarian distress in India
- Job guarantee, mental healthcare seen as key solutions
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.
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In a new report linking rainfall deficits to higher farmer suicide rates in India's drought-prone states, researchers said climate change was making "agriculture an extremely risky, potentially dangerous and loss-making endeavour".
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Nearly 11,000 farmers, cultivators and agricultural labourers took their own lives in 2021, averaging about 30 deaths a day, according to India's most recent crime data cited in the IIED report.
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The IIED report recommends a shift from insuring against poor crop yields to insuring against bad weather, giving farmers an immediate payout when it hits, regardless of actual losses.
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