Grain Mountains and Hungry Millions The Reality of Agrarian Distress

NR:While there is sufficient food production now, we find that inequalities have increased between the rural and urban. Many small and marginal farmers are forced to migrate to the towns to earn a living as rickshaw pullers or other manual workers. Santals and other tribal groups from Jharkhand work as agricultural labour in the sugar cane fields of western Uttar Pradesh, or in the construction of border roads, year after year, despite owning land at home. Extension services elude them; they are not seen as motivated because they are unable to pay the costs of transportation to travel for extension meetings and demonstrations.

Farmer suicides have increased over the last decade. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, more than 10 per cent of all recorded suicides between 2010 and 2012, that is, roughly 14,000-15,000 per year, has been that of farmers. Clearly the reality is one of agrarian distress. How and why do you think this has happened, after the euphoria of the 1960s and the 1970s…