Agricultural subsidies not enough to prevent farmers from suicide

Agricultural subsidies not enough to prevent farmers from suicide

While the country came alive to the lights and merriments of Diwali, extremely saddening reports of 14 farmers committing suicide on the same day came just as the other such news had appeared and disappeared ever since 1995. While the government boasts of developmental programs to raise the living standard of farmers, why is it that farmers are still distressed enough to take such extreme measures of ending their lives in such fatal ways? Where exactly are these so called agricultural subsidies going?

Subsidies help the farmers:

1. India is an agricultural country and the yield on crops needs to be raised for the country to see the daylight of development. This can only be attained if the poor farmers across the nation get agricultural products and seeds at lower prices. This will help them meet the rising expenses, working and living in harmony.

2. Economic crisis is the primary reason why farmers are getting depressed and hence giving up the hardship of life by simply ending them in the most fatal ways. If subsidies are properly distributed among poor farmers of the nation, a good intensity of progress could be seen and there would definitely be decline in genocide rate among farmers.

3. Providing subsidies to farmers would help them save a part of their already low income and that can be utilized by them for educating their children and changing their poor and low way of living. Agricultural subsidies can help them raise their living standard and hence prevent distress. Being distressed of not being able to raise their living standards and that of their children is also one of the reasons why farmers are forced to end their lives which they mistake to be worthless.

4. Poverty and illiteracy along with improper hygiene leads to unhealthy living conditions in villages where mostly farmers reside. They are not able to meet the expenses of treatment and have to watch their dear ones succumb to diseases. Providing properly distributed subsidies to these poor farmers can help them meet the medical expenses without much hassle.

5. The government has been failing to take care of the factors that lead to high suicide rate amongst farmers in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Hardly anything has been done to alleviate the hardships of farmers against diminishing groundwater, industrial encroachment, expensive new seed varieties, falling prices of cotton and other key crops, and climatic disasters. Providing poor farmers with subsidies is the least that the government could do for them.

Subsidies are not the way to stop self killing:

1. There are other factors that lead to distress and depression amongst farmers of India. Those factors include diminishing groundwater, industrial encroachment, expensive new seed varieties, falling prices of cotton and other key crops, and climatic disasters. Government has to take proper steps to help framers under these circumstances so that their efforts get the price it deserves.

2. Merely in the name of providing subsidies, the government announces that it has done its part of helping the farmers which is just like the publicity shows they do during election campaigning. Moreover, these subsidies do not even reach the poor farmers. It is captured by the middlemen which hardly leaves anything for the poor farmers. There should be strict laws to ensure that the farmers get their share of subsidies and they should be educated on their rights and legal support system.

3. Faulty credit system, not giving proper price to the farmers for the crops and the high debts they live with are some of the most considerate reasons that has to address but it seems that the government can only think of subsidies and compensations to the families that lost it members.

4. Subsidies have proved to do nothing to alleviate the farmers of their poor living conditions. Subsidies are being given since years, yet more than 16,000 farmer suicides were reported across the country last year. The numbers is nowhere lessening and might even rise with rise in prices of commodities. Sterner measures have to be taken if genocide has to be stopped in a country which depends largely on agricultural growth.

Conclusion:

While subsidies are the rights of the poor farmers, it has to be ensured that they actually receive the benefits. And the government must take addition measures along with financial help to ensure that the agricultural society of India remains developing for a developed nation.