Agrarian Distress and Indebtedness Among Rural Agricultural Households in Uttar Pradesh

Agriculture is the largest sector of the Indian economy in terms of population dependent on it, where more than 85% of farmers belong to small and marginal categories. In India, agriculture has made commendable progress after the Green Revolution, and with a spectacular rise, the country has become self-sufficient in the case of most of the farm products. Despite it, farmers continued to languish in poverty. As time passes, farming has become less remunerative for most of the farming community, which has led to increasing debt and overall distress. Along with this, the consistent crop failure, coupled with the high cost and vagaries of the market, have made life worse for them. According to the latest data released by ‘National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) on December 4, 2023, there were 11,290 suicide cases reported by farmers from across the country during 2022, with an increase of 3.7% from 2021. In India, more than half of farmers were in debt and as per NCRB data, there were 7034 farmers’ suicide cases due to indebtedness in 2022. Moreover, the state of Uttar Pradesh saw the highest increase in the number of suicides among all states, with a 42.13% rise when compared with 2021. In this context, the present paper examines agrarian distress and suicide among farmers in the country as well as in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The study, primarily based on secondary sources, tries to explore the underlying reasons for rural indebtedness or bankruptcies, whether it is natural, institutional, social, financial, or government policy-led. The paper also suggests some possible solutions, both short-term and medium-term, including coverage of all crops under Minimum Support Price (MSP); improvement of rural credit delivery system through institutional credit agencies; crop insurance coverage; and provision of input subsidies that can mitigate the agrarian distress among farmers.