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Farm distress leading to suicides
Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/article2615154.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/article2615154.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home
Hyderabad, Nov. 10:
Farm distress in Andhra Pradesh has forced 90 farmers to commit suicide in Andhra Pradesh in the last few weeks, Raitu Swarajya Vedika and Human Rights Forum (HRF) have alleged.
Members of these organisations have conducted fact-finding visits to Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Medak, Mahboobnagar and Anantapur districts and interviewed families of the deceased and villagers.
“The data collected from news reports in these six districts shows 90 suicides in the past one month. Since this is not an exhaustive compilation, the real numbers even in these districts are certainly much higher,” a member of the fact-finding team said.
“The glaring aspect from all the fact-finding visits is that the farmers have concluded that there is no one to help them get out of the distress situation. There is absence of any extension system or support from the Government,” a press release here from the fact-finding team said.
Cotton, maize, paddy and groundnut, which were grown in these districts, had failed. Most of the suicides happened in rain-fed areas where high-input commercial crops were grown. There were suicides in districts like East Godavari and Krishna in the past few months — especially of tenant farmers cultivating paddy, Dr G.V. Ramanjaneyulu of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture said.
“The distress was not a result only of this year's failure but accumulated from the previous years. All the families were already in debt before the season. This year's crisis further deepened their crisis. Most of the loans were from informal sources,” he said.