CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Jaideep Hardikar is a Nagpur-based senior journalist, writer, researcher and a core member of the People’s Archive of Rural India. He has worked with DNA and The Telegraph among other publications. He has reported extensively from Vidarbha on farmer suicides and the cotton crisis.

Detailed explanation-2: -The increased cost of cultivation, inadequate irrigation, drought, flood and crop failure all contribute to the lack of viability in the farming profession and debt of farmers. Additionally, difficulty in selling within the market can make or break the income of a farmer.

Detailed explanation-3: -This has forced the farmers to rely on moneylenders and thus pushed up the expenditure on agriculture. When the farmers were not able to pay back loan with high interest, they fell into the debt trap. Studies show that most of the farmers’ suicides were due to the dept trap.

Detailed explanation-4: -The crisis in agriculture. Demographic pressure on land: With the increasing population, the size of landholdings has been declining due to land fragmentation. The landless and marginal farmers account for more than 80% of rural households. Agriculture is unable to sustain these households.