A saga of drought, debt, and deaths in Maharashtra

The State’s agrarian crisis has slowly deepened, its farmers now ensnared in a vicious cycle sharpened by the impact of climate change.

Farmers at a sugarcane field in Kolhapur. The vagaries of nature have taken a severe toll on Maharashtra’s agri-economy.  | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

On March 19, 1986, the sun set on the Karpe family in Yavatmal district, Vidarbha, Maharashtra. Despairing farmer Sahebrao Karpe , consumed by hopelessness, laced their last meal with poison. The chilling note he left behind read: “It is impossible to survive as a farmer.”

Despite owning swathes of land, Karpe watched helplessly as his banana and wheat crops withered, deprived of water. The borewell stood useless; the power had been cut off due to unpaid bills. With no way out, Karpe and his family ended their lives, a tragic act that signalled the beginning of an unending epidemic—farmers’ suicides.

Fast forward to 2024, and the grim tale continues. In just six months of this year, 1,267 farmers in Maharashtra have taken their own lives. The Amravati division, home to Karpe’s Yavatmal, bears the heaviest burden with 557 suicides. Close behind, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division mourns 430 deaths, followed by Nashik (137), Nagpur (130), and Pune (13).

Last year, a staggering 2,851 farmers, overwhelmed by unrelenting distress, chose to end their lives. In 2022, the death toll was even higher, with 2,942 debt-ridden farmers succumbing to despair.

The previous year, 2021, saw 2,743 farmers take their own lives, each number a silent testament to the crushing burden they bore. Thanks to the farmer movement in the State, farmer suicides do not go unnoticed. However, the heart-wrenching data continue to paint a grim picture of an ongoing crisis. Maharashtra’s farmers find themselves ensnared in a relentless cycle of drought and debt, now exacerbated by the unyielding advance of climate change. The skies, once symbols of hope, have become harbingers of disaster. In recent years, unseasonal rains and hailstorms have pounded the State in November, December, February, April, and May, devastating rabi crops and seasonal fruits. These crops, sold between April and June, are the lifeline for farmers, their earnings crucial for repaying debts and purchasing essentials for the sowing season. Seeds, manure, insecticides—all depend on this vital income. The increase in rainfall has also led to a surge in pest infestations.

The Maratha community, primarily engaged in agriculture, is deeply frustrated as their calls for a share in OBC reservation remain unheeded. Amid a persistent agrarian crisis, they hold onto the hope that reservations could provide crucial support. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The State Action Plan for Climate Change underscores Maharashtra’s vulnerability to extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and cyclones, with about 68 per cent of cultivable land prone to drought. A report by The Energy and Resources Institute warns that rising temperatures could decrease crop yields. Recent studies by agricultural scientists indicate that a temperature increase of 1°C to 4°C can reduce potential crop yields.

Disillusioned farmers

“The cycle of droughts and unseasonal rains is beyond our understanding. What we understand is that farming is becoming impossible. Probably, we are the last generation in our village to cultivate,” laments the septuagenarian farmer Madhukar Bande from Solapur. His sentiment is echoed by the youth, including young Prabhakar Bande, who see no future in farming.

“Generations after generations, the land size is shrinking, yields are declining, and there’s no certainty of the market even if the yield is good. Forget the market for crops; the ‘marriage market’ for young farmers is completely down. You’ll find a bunch of young farmers who have crossed 40 and are still unmarried because nobody wants to marry a farmer,” said says BandePrabhakar. He adds that many of his friends have migrated to Pune or Mumbai in search of work and brides.

The numbers tell a compelling story. In 2023-24, as per advance estimates, real gross State value added (GSVA) of “Agriculture and allied activities” is expected to grow at 1.9 per cent. The “industry” sector is expected to grow at 7.6 per cent and the “services” sector is expected to grow at 8.8 per cent. This growing disparity is a powerful magnet pulling young farmers like Bande Prabhakar away from their ancestral fields and into the urban sprawl, seeking better opportunities.

Over the current series from 2011-12 to 2022-23, the services sector dominated Maharashtra’s nominal GSVA with a commanding 57.1 per cent share. The industry sector followed at 30.9 per cent, leaving agriculture and allied activities a distant third at just 12.0 per cent; however, agriculture is still the mainstay of the State, with almost 82 per cent of the rural population depending on it for their livelihood.

The India Employment Report 2024 by the International Labour Organization underscores a significant trend: the slow but steady exodus of the workforce from agriculture to non-farm sectors. Labour from agriculture has been primarily absorbed by the burgeoning construction and services sectors. In Maharashtra, this trend is accelerated by the relentless shrinking of landholdings. The average size of operational holdings in the State has dramatically decreased from 4.28 hectares in 1970-71 to just 1.34 ha in 2015-16. Small and marginal holdings, up to 2 ha, constitute 45 per cent of the total operational area but account for a staggering 79.5 per cent of the number of operational holdings.

As the next generation of farmers migrates to cities, small and marginal farmers are selling their lands to government officials, industrialists, and businessmen from urban areas. “You will see the rich and powerful on a buying spree. Now, farmers are working as labourers on their own land,” laments Nasim Sanadi , a farmer from Kolhapur in western Maharashtra .

Amidst barren lands and parched fields, the exodus of youth from rural areas paints a poignant picture of agricultural distress. Villages are left with old people who depend mostly on animal husbandry for survival. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

As the land that once symbolised prosperity and self-reliance now shackles its former owners in a relentless cycle of servitude and despair, the farming community, particularly the Marathas, which makes up about 34 per cent of Maharashtra’s population, clings to a flicker of hope in the form of reservation quotas. The Marathas are fervently demanding a share of the OBC reservation in government jobs and education, a demand that has ignited a volatile tinderbox of communal tension, widening the caste chasm in rural areas.

Appeasement politics

As the agrarian crisis deepens, the State government, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde , follows a familiar playbook of appeasement. Lavish promises of free power and increased subsidies rain down on farmers, while Ministers clamour for yet another loan waiver. These popular announcements are thinly veiled attempts to curry favour with voters ahead of the State Assembly election. But beneath the glittering facade of these schemes lies a grim reality: the failure to address the root causes of farmers’ distress. Short-sighted solutions offered by politicians over the years have left farmers stranded. When the temporary relief from these programmes dissipates, the farmers are left high and dry, their fundamental issues unresolved, their futures uncertain.

Maharashtra, with 24per cent of the country’s drought-prone areas, is testament to nature’s harshness, with 99 talukas chronically parched. The problem looms large in central and eastern Maharashtra, rendering agriculture heavily reliant on the whims of the rain gods. Yet, in this dire scenario, the State government’s silence on irrigation is deafening. This reticence harks back to the infamous Rs. 70,000 crore irrigation scam, a scandalous revelation of alleged financial mismanagement and corruption that shook the State in 2012.

Despite the colossal sums funnelled into various irrigation projects, Maharashtra’s capacity to harness water improved by a mere 0.1 per cent over an entire decade. The latest figures from the State government show that despite an irrigation potential of 55.60 lakh ha, only 42.33 lakh ha—or a paltry 76.1 per cent—were actually irrigated in 2022-23. The State’s unforgiving topography and geology restrict groundwater resources, while in regions where water is abundant, reckless over-extraction for cash crops continues.

Post-harvest woes compound their suffering. The fragility of many crops, combined with their limited shelf life, forces farmers into a desperate scramble, bearing high transportation costs, every harvest. The absence of essential infrastructure—grading, pre-cooling, packing, and cold storage facilities—cripples farmers’ ability to realise fair prices for their produce. A merciless, inconsistent agricultural export policy, coupled with a corrupt supply chain where middlemen siphon off 50 per cent of retail prices, plunges farmers further into the abyss.

Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs ) are dominated by politicians who act as directors, running the show with the help of traders and commission agents known as arhtiyas . The moment a farmer steps into an APMC , he is thrust into a world where he is a pawn in the hands of these powerful players.

Vimal Nagtilak , a beleaguered farmer from Dharashiv in the desolate Marathwada region—synonymous with the grim spectre of farmer suicides—said: “The entire system, top to bottom, is rotten, pushing us to the brink.” The desperation in her voice is palpable as she recounts farmers’ reliance on private moneylenders and the predatory financial companies who infiltrate every village with loans at exorbitant interest rates. Banks, mistrustful and unwilling to lend, leave farmers with nowhere else to turn.

In the absence of irrigation schemes, many farmers are left with no choice but to dig bore wells and wells. Despite excavating as deep as 400 feet into the earth, a considerable number of farmers struggle to find sufficient water for their crops. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

In 2023-24, a staggering Rs .60,195 crore in crop loans and Rs .93,926 crore in agricultural term loans were disbursed through scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks, and district central cooperative banks. Yet, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently had to warn nationalised banks about the prospect of being slapped with FIRs if they demanded CIBIL(Credit Information Bureau India Ltd, a credit information company engaged in the maintenance of records of all credit-related activities of individuals and organisations) scores from farmers seeking crop loans, highlighting the mistrust in the system.

“The only way to go forward is collectivisation for farmers. The concept of farmer producer organisations (FPOs) has provided an opportunity to rejuvenate the agriculture sector,” said ys Vilas Shinde , chairman and managing director of Sahyadri Farms, the FPO in Nashik that has crossed an annual turnover of Rs.1,000 crore. Sahyadri Farms is recognised as India’s leading FPO in grape production and export, as well as tomato processing.

A National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development analysis shows that training farmers in new techniques such as pond and micro irrigation, and providing improved seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides and technology transfer from agricultural universities could boost yields. Focussing on high-value horticulture can also increase farmers’ incomes through urban markets and export opportunities.

Amar Habib, a farmer activist, saidys: “The plight of our farmers demands more than mere Band-Aid solutions; it calls for sustainable, transformative changes such as scrapping anti-farmer laws that strike at the very roots of their suffering.” Habib and other farmer activists have launched a movement to observe a hunger strike each year on March 19, the day of Karpe’s tragic death. This annual act of solidarity serves as a stark, emotional reminder of the ongoing crisis. It is a rallying cry for the State and the nation to grant farmers the freedom to access markets and technology.