GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 107

ANSWERED ON:24.02.2015

REPORT ON FARMERS SUICIDE

ANANT KUMAR DATTATREYA HEGDE

(a) whether the Intelligence Bureau has recently submitted a report regarding increase in the number of suicides by farmers in the country;

(b) if so, the details thereof indicating the number of such cases reported in the country during 2014, State-wise; and

(c) the action taken by the Government in this regard?

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRSbe pleased to state:-

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

(SHRI HARIBHAI PARATHIBHAI CHAUDHARY)

 (a) to (c): A report was received from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in December 2014 regarding suicide by farmers in various parts of the country including Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Outstanding loans, rising debts, low crop yield, poor procurement rate of crops, successive crop failure erratic monsoon, decline in ground water level etc have been identified as the main causes of suicide. The state-wise details of cases of suicide by the farmers has not been indicated in the said report. 

Agriculture including agricultural loans, being a State subject as per the 7th Schedule of the Constitution of India, the state government concerned is required to take appropriate measures for development of agriculture sector in the state including payment of compensation to the bereaved families of suicide victims. The Government of India supplements the efforts of States through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support.

 The Government of India has taken several steps to revitalize the agriculture sector and improve upon the condition of farming community on sustainable basis. The focus of Government is primarily on expansion of farm income, creation of non-farm income opportunities, improvement in productivity of rainfed agriculture, increasing coverage of farming areas under protective irrigation and forging appropriate backward and forward linkages, enhancement in minimum support prices of agriculture commodities, increase in institutional credit flow to agriculture sector, post-harvest loan for six months to eliminate distress sale of agricultural produce by farmers, debt waive /relief, interest subvention on crop loans, revival package for strengthening Short Term Rural Cooperative Credit Structure etc.