Farmer's income and agrarian distress: The case of India

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Rohit Singh
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wfp2.12017

World Food Policy. 2020;6:105–118. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/wfp2

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105

© 2020 Policy Studies Organization

Received: 5 May 2020

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Revised: 20 August 2020

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Accepted: 22 August 2020

DOI: 10.1002/wfp2.12017

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Farmer's income and agrarian distress: The case of

India

RohitSingh1,2

1University of Sussex, UK

2GGSIPU, New Delhi, India

Correspondence

Rohit Singh, Department of Economics,

University School of Humanities and

Social Sciences, Guru Gobind Singh

Indraprastha University, New Delhi, India.

Email: rs681@sussex.ac.uk; rohitsingh@

ipu.ac.in

Abstract

The paper analyses the effects of five distinct factors, which

are responsible for high incidents of suicides among farm-

ers in India. The study analyses the effect of ratio of net

irrigated area to net sown area, average yield per hectare

and expenditure by the households, and credit advanced

to the farmers and proportion of food grain crops and non-

food grain crops on farmer's suicides. The study uses a

panel data over 17years (from 2001–2002 till 2017–2018)

for all 28 states. The study finds that an increase in ratio of

net irrigated area to net sown area, average yield and credit

advanced to the farmers reduces the number of farmer sui-

cides, whereas farmer's household expenditure and propor-

tion of food to non-food crops have no significant effect

on suicides. Furthermore, the paper suggests that there are

increased incidences of suicides by the farmers every year

and the government need to amend its existing agricultural

policies and work for the economic and social well-being of

the farmers, thus preventing suicides at a larger scale. The

study also draws a comparison with Chinese policy at local

level which may be implicated in India.

KEYWORDS

doubling of farmer's income, farmer's suicide, policy mix in

agriculture sector

JEL CLASSIFICATION

Q10; Q12; Q18