IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2016-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Farmer Suicides in India: Levels and Trends across Major States, 1995-2011

Author

Listed:
  • Basu, Deepankar
  • Das, Debarshi
  • Misra, Kartik

    (Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Abstract

In the paper, we use data on farmer suicides from the National Crime Records Bureau and population data from the Censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011 to estimate the suicide mortality rate (SMR) of farmers and non-farmers for 19 major states of India and for the country as a whole. We use movements in the SMR ratio (ratio of farmer SMR and non-farmer SMR) to understand the level and trend of the problem of farmer suicides across states and over time. For the country as a whole, and for many individual states, the SMR ratio has increased over time. This suggests that the problem of farmer suicides has become more severe across large swathes of the country, and calls for immediate and well planned policy interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Basu, Deepankar & Das, Debarshi & Misra, Kartik, 2016. "Farmer Suicides in India: Levels and Trends across Major States, 1995-2011," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2016-01, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2016-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2016-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gill, Anita & Singh, Lakhwinder, 2006. "Farmers’ Suicides and Response of Public Policy: Evidence, Diagnosis and Alternatives from Punjab," MPRA Paper 146, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Reddy, D. Narasimha & Mishra, Srijit (ed.), 2009. "Agrarian Crisis in India," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195695953.
    3. Anoop Sadanandan, 2014. "Political economy of suicide: financial reforms, credit crunches and farmer suicides in India," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 48(4), pages 287-307, October-D.
    4. Guillaume Gruere & Debdatta Sengupta, 2011. "Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides in India: An Evidence-based Assessment," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 316-337.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mirza, Arshad & Singh, Nirvikar, 2018. "Mental Health Policy in India: Seven Sets of Questions and Some Answers," MPRA Paper 91046, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sthanu R Nair, 2021. "Agrarian suicides in India: Myth and reality," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 39(1), pages 3-21, January.
    3. Ankur Jain & Neela Madhaba Sheekha, 2022. "Agrarian crisis in wheat-producing region of India: analysis of profitability and costs," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 24(2), pages 320-339, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. H. M. Vinaya Kumar & N. B. Chauhan & D. D. Patel & J. B. Patel, 2019. "Predictive factors to avoid farming as a livelihood," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Yashobanta Parida & Devi Prasad Dash & Parul Bhardwaj & Joyita Roy Chowdhury, 2018. "Effects of Drought and Flood on Farmer Suicides in Indian States: An Empirical Analysis," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 159-180, July.
    3. Sonal Barve & K.S. Kavi Kumar & Brinda Viswanathan, 2019. "Weather Shocks, Agricultural Productivity and Farmer Suicides in India," Working Papers 2019-185, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    4. Wu, Qi & Merel, Pierre & Sexton, Richard J., 2022. "Economic and Climate Determinants of Farmer Suicide in the United States," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322342, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Sarthak Gaurav & Srijit Mishra, 2012. "To Bt or not to Bt? Risk and uncertainty considerations in technology assessment," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    6. K. N. Harilal & K. K. Eswaran, 2016. "Agrarian Question and Democratic Decentralization in Kerala," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 5(2-3), pages 292-324, August.
    7. Singh, Lakhwinder, 2010. "Post-reform economic development in Punjab: constraints and remedies," MPRA Paper 26741, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Baccar, Mariem & Raynal, Hélène & Sekhar, Muddu & Bergez, Jacques-Eric & Willaume, Magali & Casel, Pierre & Giriraj, P. & Murthy, Sanjeeva & Ruiz, Laurent, 2023. "Dynamics of crop category choices reveal strategies and tactics used by smallholder farmers in India to cope with unreliable water availability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    9. Moumita Poddar & Tanmoyee Banerjee (Chatterjee) & Ajitava Raychaudhuri, 2019. "An economic analysis of the determinants of pattern of institutional borrowing in India," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 21(1), pages 54-92, June.
    10. K.N. Nair, 2008. "Distress Debt and Suicides among Agrarian Households: Findings from Three Villages in Kerala," Working Papers id:1586, eSocialSciences.
    11. Jayatilleke S. Bandara, 2013. "What is Driving India’s Food Inflation? A Survey of Recent Evidence," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 14(1), pages 127-156, March.
    12. Srijit Mishra, 2009. "Poverty and Agrarian Distress in Orissa," Working Papers id:2259, eSocialSciences.
    13. Bishnu Raj Upreti & Yamuna Ghale & Sharmila Shivakoti & Sushant Acharya, 2018. "Feminization of Agriculture in the Eastern Hills of Nepal: A study of Women in Cardamom and Ginger Farming," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, December.
    14. Kurup, Suresh A. & Reddy, A. Amarender & Singh, Dharm Raj & Praveen, K.V, 2021. "Risks in Rainfed Agriculture and Adaptation Strategies in India: Profile and Socio-Economic Correlates," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315127, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt & Mohanraj Adhikari, 2016. "From sharecropping to crop-rent: women farmers changing agricultural production relations in rural South Asia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 997-1010, December.
    16. Leemamol Mathew, 2010. "Coping with Shame of Poverty," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 22(2), pages 385-407, September.
    17. S.S. Kalamkar, 2013. "Biotechnology in Indian Agriculture: Review of Adoption and Performance of Bt Cotton," Millennial Asia, , vol. 4(2), pages 211-236, October.
    18. Giller, Ken E. & Andersson, Jens & Delaune, Thomas & Silva, João Vasco & Descheemaeker, Katrien & van de Ven, Gerrie & Schut, Antonius G.T. & van Wijk, Mark & Hammond, Jim & Hochman, Zvi & Taulya, God, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 83: The future of farming: who will produce our food?," IFAD Research Series 322005, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    19. Sowmya Dhanaraj & Vidya Mahambare & Pragati, 2021. "Are India’s farm debt waivers a political tool that impacts government finances?," Working Papers 2021-211, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    20. Narayan Prasad Nagendra & Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy & Roger Moser, 2022. "Satellite big data analytics for ethical decision making in farmer’s insurance claim settlement: minimization of type-I and type-II errors," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(2), pages 1061-1082, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    farmer suicides; India; debt; agrarian crisis.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2016-01. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.