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Punjab’s farming sector in crisis -Vikas Vasudeva
-The Hindu

Agricultural experts say small farmers are working under severe economic constraints — their earnings are very low and they are indebted — and hence many are compelled to leave farming.

Punjab’s farming sector is in crisis and showing signs of sickness as it suffers from falling productivity and shrinking returns. Farmers are reeling under debt, and owing to low profitability, small farmers, in particular, are quitting farming. In the past few years, around 28 per cent of them have entered the labour market.

Agricultural experts say small farmers are working under severe economic constraints — their earnings are very low and they are indebted — and hence many are compelled to leave farming. Tragically, some reach a stage where they commit suicide.

Sukhpal Singh, senior economist and head of the Department of Economics and Sociology at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), told The Hindu: “It’s high time that the authorities seriously looked into the problems of marginal and small farmers.”

He said the need of the hour was to make small farming viable through a massive public investment in agriculture.

A study of farmers’ issues conducted by Dr. Sukhpal Singh and a team of PAU reveals the farmers are reeling under debt. Of the sampled farmers, 88 per cent had an average debt of Rs.218,092 per household. The amount of debt per hectare was inversely related to the farm size. It was the highest among marginal farmers at Rs.1,70,184, followed by small farmers at Rs.1,04,155 and for other farmers at Rs.44,069.

“The rate of increase in cultivation cost has been much faster than that of produce prices. Therefore, the increase in income from farming has not been sufficient to meet the domestic and farm expenditure, which led a large number of farmers into a debt trap, and consequently forcing many to commit suicide,” Dr. Sukhpal Singh said. The study suggests 89 per cent of marginal farmers and 91 per cent of small farmers are in debt.

The study reveals small farmers are in crisis, both economically and socially, as their traditional source of livelihood has become unviable because of rapidly increasing input costs. “In a census-based study of farmers’ suicides in six districts of Punjab during 2011, it was found that the largest number who took their own lives belonged to the category of small farmers,” she said.

Of the 3,507 farmers who committed suicide in Punjab between 2000 and 2011, about 80 per cent were marginal and small farmers (up to 2 hectares). These farmers had an average debt of Rs. 2,35,000 per household and they earned only Rs. 30,420 a year, which indicates the miserable condition of marginal and small farmers, says the study.