Harvest of Death

Farmers’ Suicides and Rural Starvation in the Shadow of Globalisation PUBLISHER’S NOTE The Indian Institute of Marxist Studies has produced this booklet in response to the current crisis gripping Indian agriculture, and

Two Sides of a Simmering Agrarian Crisis

Five years ago, farmers’ suicides were considered to be a temporary phenomenon. But, today what we are witnessing refutes that story. Farmers’ suicides regularly appear in the newspaper columns of

Farmers’ Suicides

The organised attempts to study the phenomenon of suicides undertaken by the governments of Punjab and Karnataka have proved to be superficial and designed to toe the official line. The

Undoing Land Reforms

Almost all suicide victims belong to the category of small and marginal peasants. So, not only the Veeresh Committee of Karnataka but also the National Agricultural Policy suggests consolidation of

Neo- Landlordism

Most of the farmers who committed suicides owe heavy debts to usurious moneylenders, in some cases, to banks as well. Many moneylenders have invested crores of rupees in this business.

Escalating Prices of Inputs

Pesticides and fertilizers constitute major part of the expenses of agricultural operations apart from high electricity tariff. Farmers, hoping against hope, have been using much larger doses of pesticides to

Price Crash and Imports

The farmers’ movement as a whole is already forced to make a strategic shift from demanding remunerative prices to minimum support prices. Even minimum support has become a mirage in

Subsidies

Developed countries like America subsidise agriculture, categorizing it into the Amber Box, Blue Box and Green Box. The total subsidy in America has reached more than $90 billion in 1994

Banking System

In the backdrop of increasing number of suicides being reported from many state’s, extending institutional credit to farmers and rural areas is a crying need. But, the trend is in

Agri-Business Monopoly

The attempt for domination by multinational companies is more focused in the seed sector. Agri-business TNCs and private houses are hell bent on establishing their stranglehold on the seed business.

Starvation Deaths and Food Insecurity

Millions of people go to bed hungry every night. Already thousands have died of endemic hunger and malnutrition in states like Rajasthan, Orissa, etc. Even in some pockets of the

Poverty and Inequality

The “Trickle Down” theory has now become a thing of the past. It has only led to the process of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Even the

Agrarian Labourers and Globalisation

While starvation deaths are closely related to the policies of distribution and food security, farmers’ suicides are closely related to the policies of agricultural production and porocurement. Starvation is basically

What Is To Be Done?

Farmers’ movement in India has been traditionally led by rich, capitalist farmers and kulaks in India. The present turbulence is more obviously intense among the lower strata of peasantry while

Anantapur: A Case Study

An extremely outrageous situation has surfaced in Anantpur District. Forty-five suicides of farmers have taken place within fifty days in early 2003, according to Eenadu, a local newspaper. P. Sainath

Privatisation of Water

Water has become a commodity. Water has also become a source of power. In South Africa, control over water resources is a more powerful control of dominance than the control