The Farmer Suicide Epidemic in India: Monocultural Farming, Occupational Immobility, and Caste Identity

An Agrarian Crisis has impeded Agricultural and rural regions in India's Northern and Southern states. This has been brought about by factors like the governmental incentivisation of monocultural farming practices, occupational immobility from generational debt, and discrimination stemming from the Caste identity structure. This article hopes to divulge these reasons to understand why India’s agricultural system has failed the farmers working in it.

History of India’s Agricultural Trends

India is largely a rural and agricultural country. In 2021, 43.96% of the workforce in India was employed in agriculture.[1] However, during the national economic reforms in the 1990s, public investment in agriculture had been reduced. This adversely affected agricultural growth but also the financial and psychological health of many Indian agriculturists and farmers who relied on sub-sectors such as horticulture and livestock as their sole occupation.[2]  Indian citizens could not ignore the unavoidable reality that agriculture had become an ‘unrewarding profession’.[3]

In an attempt to save the agricultural sectors, farmers have recently united across India to pressure the policymakers for Agrarian reforms. They began protesting against farm laws which the Indian Parliament had enacted to overhaul the Country’s agriculture by minimising the government’s role and leaving ajar space for private investors. Over 100,000 farmers in New Delhi had formed several coalitions and blocked off roads, fearing that the lack of already inefficient state protections would leave them vulnerable to greedy corporate entities.[4] After years of protest, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally conceded to repeal the farm laws.[5] But this is only a small victory. There are many deep-rooted issues which have adversely affected the agriculture success of small farmers in India which these protests have yet to acknowledge.

This article will seek to understand the reasons for increased farmer suicides in Northern and Southern Indian states. These reasons will be limited to discussing genetically modified crops, the Caste system, and humiliation.

Picture credit: Unsplash

Monocultural Farming in Northern India

As highlighted by Singh, the northern state of Punjab was known as the ‘breadbasket’ because of its significant contribution to cultivating crucial grains like wheat and rice.[1] This agricultural trend arose because of the ‘हरितक्रांति’ ‘Green Revolution’. When certain parts of Punjab were crippled by famine due to low productivity and traditional agrarian production methods, the government strategised an alternative plan. They invited American agronomists, like Norman Borlaug, to develop high-yield wheat and rice strains. Soon, the state continued to supply the majority of India’s wheat and rice for decades.

However, Agriculture Policy Expert Dr. Richa Kumar delineates that this revolution lured Punjabi farmers into the ‘technological treadmill’ of monocultural farming (growing one type of crop exclusively on a specific field).[7] When the Indian government began exclusively subsidising the American-funded monoculture seeds, the farmers continued to purchase only those varieties, neglecting other native crops (like mustard seeds, chickpeas, and sunflowers). However, they did not realise that cultivating the same monocultures repeatedly would eventually deplete their soils and create resistant pests. Farmers were pressured to maintain their monocrops by constant loans to purchase pesticides, fertilisers, and modified seeds that could tolerate the excess chemicals.[8] Unfortunately, this financial burden does not subside when they sell their crops, as they are likely left with less than 20% of the profits that are mostly used as down-payments for new seeds to harvest. This is highly problematic as agriculturists are trapped in a detrimental cycle of sustaining largely unprofitable monocultural farming practices that deplete their ability to diversify into more profitable ones. This increases the likelihood of a domino effect of intergenerational bondage (poverty-struck individuals are imposed to repay debts with forced labour) imposed on the farmers’ children. However, it is important to note that the caste structure inherent in the society can also induce or further contribute to intergenerational poverty.

Farmers in Punjab use the cost-effective method to clear their land by burning it, causing a decline in soil fertility and threatening the long-term sustainability of Punjab’s rice and wheat monocrops (Photo credit: Neil Palmer/CCAFS/CGIAR).

‘Backward’ Castes, Humiliation, and Generational Debt in Southern India

Although there is a similar trend in the Southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in India with Bt Cotton, a genetically modified crop aimed to reduce the amount of insecticide required in farming cotton, caste-based social organisation and humiliation from socio-cultural dynamics can have a greater effect in farmer suicides in these regions.[9]

The Indian ‘Caste’ system is historically a predominant cultural dimension where citizens are ‘socially differentiated through class, religion, tribe, gender, and language’ based on Vedic texts from the Hindu religion.[10] Although Caste identity may not be aptly followed in more urban areas of India (and is outlawed in India), it remains a significant marker of social class and occupation in rural areas, making it a source of discrimination. In the agrarian context, overwhelming academic discourse suggests that marginal farmers, particularly those of lower castes, are disproportionally affected by discrimination.[11]

 India is experiencing an increased suicide rate amongst Bt Cotton farmers in rural areas. Many of them resort to Moneylenders to borrow capital for the expensive harvest and fail to pay them back when unfavorable weather conditions spur (Photo credit: Lynda Laird. The Guardian)

For this portion, most of this article’s discussion will be based on researchers Kannuri and Jadhav’s ethnographic study, ‘Cultivating distress: Cotton, Caste, and Farmer Suicides in India’,  conducted in the Bt Cotton-growing village of the Warangal district in the Telangana state.[12] This was previously publicised as an epicentre for farmer suicides for its extremely high proportion of farmer-to-non-farmer suicides.[13] In Kannuri’s study, the village of Warangal is historically dominated by the Reddy caste group.

Case Study 1

Mellehasm, the brother of a cotton farmer who committed suicide, said, ' I don’t think all this would have happened if we belonged to some other caste…The Reddys and other upper castes never endorsed our effort to shift from our caste work to agriculture.’ While discussing issues related to the shift in occupation, including the use of Bt Cotton and access to natural resources and debts: ‘Water was always a problem as we had to pump it from the canal through the lands of the big farmer from the Reddy caste [who controlled the amount and timing of water supply] …when the crops failed only the private money lender was accessible and ready to give us loans. We know the interest rates were high, but there was no other source’. Finally, when drawing the link between his brother’s suicides and his alcoholism: ‘I sometimes drink ‘mandu’ (alcohol) as it relieves me. If we were from any other caste…we wouldn’t have been in this situation’.

Case Study 2

The deceased farmer, Kumar, started to cultivate Bt Cotton in 2008. He was under increasing pressure from the moneylenders to return the money he borrowed for extra land with interest. Kumar was particularly upset when a money lender came to his home and demanded repayment in front of his family. He committed suicide less than a week later. While discussing their occupational mobility, Kumar’s widow, Srinu, commented: ‘We are not skilled or trained to do anything else. Agriculture is the only option. Either we float or sink’. When discussing the suicide of her late husband, she continued, ‘Once the moneylender pressurises for repayment, they lose their face amongst the community… this they cannot tolerate, and they commit suicide’.

Usha found her husband, Marotrao, in their cotton field in Yavatmal after he was unable to pay back loans for Bt Cotton, fertilizer, and pesticides. After his death, the government sold his land to pay off his debt and left Usha with nothing (Photo credit: Lynda Laird. The Guardian).

The Role of The Caste system and Humiliation amongst Farmer Distress

This article observes a trend between both case studies. Intragenerational mobility, or the movement in the economic ladder that an individual experiences within their lifetime, was never possible to both Kumar and Mellehasm.[14] This likely stems from the victims being members of a low-Caste as due to the substantial intergenerational continuity in occupation type in low-income and low-Caste individuals.[15] Being unable to diversify out of agricultural professions, made it extremely difficult to settle their debts on time. Moreover, there is also a trend of shame and humiliation caused by moneylenders harassing them for repayment in front of their families and other villagers, which they could not tolerate. 

Kannuri asserts that the case studies do not present a direct causal link between ‘caste identity distress, cotton farming, and suicide’. However, they emphasise the many factors determining suicide and mental ill-health amongst Dalit Cotton farmers. This article wants to agree with this contention but fails to recognise other factors which can be major contributors to increased suicide rates. However, it is unable to make conclusive remarks on a causal link because of a surprising lack of academic research and major international reports which allude to the mental ill-health of India’s caste system in the Agrarian context.

Furthermore, Kannuri recognised Humiliation as a common psychological driver in the various case studies in Warangal. However, he is similarly hesitant to make a causal link to the dynamic of humiliation and suicide because of academic research impaired by Western sample pools.[16] As a result, there needs to be further scholarship in humiliation studies within the Indian Agrarian context.

Dr Debal Deb, a sustainable farmer in the West Bengal state, grows varieties of indigenous rice he helped save from extinction after industrial and GM farming, favouring monocultures, took over (Photo credit: Jason Tyler/The Gaia Foundation. The Guardian).

Solutions to Monocultural Farming

In the hope of change, an organic farming activist from Kheti Virasat Mission, Umendra Dutt, has convinced over 5000 farmers to transition to sustainable polyculture farming practices since 2005.[17] Mr Dutt recognises that although chemical-intensive monoculture is heavily subsidised, the societal costs incurred extend beyond financial implications. Following the conclusion of the recent protests, farmer coalitions await the government’s fulfilment of its commitment to expand price subsidies for crops beyond wheat and rice. Nevertheless, this measure only temporarily fixes a fundamentally flawed agricultural system.

In conclusion, this article affirms that monocultural farming, such as wheat and rice and BT cotton strains, has adversely impacted the financial health of farmers and caused generational debts because of high expenditure on harvesting materials and low profits. This situation has given rise to forced labor as debt repayment, where Indian farmers are coerced and shamed into repaying their debts even when they lack the means to do so. Moreover, there is also a correlation, recognised by academic scholarship, between the farmer’s ‘Backwards’ Caste identity and negative mental health repercussions, like suicide, depression, and alcoholism. To help reform these deep-rooted issues in the Agrarian sector, there needs to be a societal reconfiguration from the BJP Government to prevent such disproportionate suicide rates and push toward sustainable farming and access to mental health resources.  

[1] World Bank, ‘India: Distribution of the Workforce across Economic Sectors from 2011 to 2021’ <worldbank.org>.

[2] Jayati Ghosh, ‘“Freedom from Hunger” Lecture Series the Political Economy of Farmers’ Suicides in India’ (2005) <http://www.macroscan.org/fet/dec05/pdf/Freedom_Hunger.pdf> accessed 4 October 2023.

[3] Dipankar Gupta, ‘Whither the Indian Village?: Culture and Agriculture in “Rural” India’ (2005) 10 Review of Development and Change 1.

[4] Mujib Mashal, Emily Schmall and Russell Goldman, ‘Why Are Farmers Protesting in India?’ The New York Times (27 January 2021) <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/world/asia/india-farmer-protest.html>.

[5] Mujib Mashal, Emily Schmall and Russell Goldman, ‘Why Are Farmers Protesting in India?’ The New York Times (27 January 2021) <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/world/asia/india-farmer-protest.html>.

[6] Lakhwinder Singh, Kesar Singh Bhangoo and Rakesh Sharma, Agrarian Distress and Farmer Suicides in North India (Second Edition) (Taylor & Francis 2019).

[7] VICE News, ‘Why India’s Farm System Is Failing’ (www.youtube.com2022) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSodjZhdc_c&t=65s> accessed 4 October 2023.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Nanda Kishore Kannuri and Sushrut Jadhav, ‘Cultivating Distress: Cotton, Caste and Farmer Suicides in India’ (2021) 28 Anthropology & Medicine 1.

[10] Manali Deshpande, ‘History of the Indian Caste System and Its Impact on India Today’ [2010] Social Sciences <https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/socssp/44>.

[11] Dominic Merriott, ‘Factors Associated with the Farmer Suicide Crisis in India’ (2016) 6 Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health 217; Suvi Alt, ‘Farmer Suicides and the Function of Death in Neoliberal Biopolitics’ (2018) 13 International Political Sociology 37.

[12] Nanda Kishore Kannuri and Sushrut Jadhav, ‘Cultivating Distress: Cotton, Caste and Farmer Suicides in India’ (2021) 28 Anthropology & Medicine 1

[13] Ronald J Herring, ‘Opposition to Transgenic Technologies: Ideology, Interests and Collective Action Frames’ (2008) 9 Nature Reviews Genetics 458

[14] Vegard Iversen, Anirudh Krishna and Kunal Sen, ‘Rags to Riches? Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in India’ (2017) 52 Economic and Political Weekly 107.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Paulus Kaufmann and others, Humiliation, Degradation, Dehumanization. (Springer 2011).

[17] VICE News, ‘Why India’s Farm System Is Failing’ (www.youtube.com2022) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSodjZhdc_c&t=65s> accessed 4 October 2023.