Farming in Crisis: Suicides and Climate Change Threaten India's Agrarian Future

Mahim Mazumder spends his days tending to his crops. Credit: Juheb Jhony/IPSby Aishwarya Bajpai (delhi)Monday, November 11, 2024Inter Press Service

DELHI, Nov 11 (IPS) - "Farming is in my blood, and I can't imagine doing anything else," said Mahim Mazumder, a farmer from Assam. "Even though the past three to five years have seen drastic changes—with temperatures rising so much that even sitting under a tree no longer offers relief—I will keep farming, even if it only yields a small harvest. I've spent my entire life farming, and despite all the challenges, I'll continue."

Mahim has been farming alongside his father since childhood, and now, at 55, he continues to rely on growing paddy and vegetables, both heavily dependent on the weather. However, floods and erratic temperatures often devastate his crops. With the changing climate, cultivating anything with certainty has become increasingly difficult. Mahim hails from Assam, a northeastern region of India often overlooked but now recognized as a climate hotspot.

Though it constitutes just 2.4 percent of India's land area, Assam accounts for nearly 9.4 percent of the country's flood-prone regions. Severe flooding and natural disasters, worsened by climate change, strike the state annually, wreaking havoc on millions of lives and livelihoods.

A Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Adaptation Planning in India, jointly conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Mandi, IIT-Guwahati, and the Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore, identifies the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi, and Karimganj in Assam's Barak Valley as among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Data on Farmer Suicides in Assam. Credit: Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

Of the 25 most vulnerable districts in India, 15 districts from Assam have been highlighted as highly vulnerable. Farmers are the ones who are most severely affected by this as they struggle to deal with the worsening climate crisis, which frequently results in tragic extremes like an increase in farmer suicides.

Long-standing problems in India include farmer suicides brought on by crushing debt, deteriorating the environment, droughts, severe weather, and the unfavorable effects of pesticides, which in some cases have even caused cancer.

The year-long farmers' protest in 2021, held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, serves as a stark reminder of how farmers have been treated—many lost their lives during the movement.

India is now on the verge of becoming the global epicenter of farmer suicides, where these tragedies make the news but no longer dominate the headlines. Many farmers are still struggling to cope with the intensifying crisis as the cycle of debt and economic hardships worsen.

Farmer suicides in India have averaged between 10,000 and 12,000 annually from 2015 to 2022 (NCRB 2015-2022). In Assam, agricultural laborers faced higher suicide rates than land-owning or leasing farmers, highlighting their increased vulnerability.

The year 2021 saw the highest number of suicides (227), largely as a result of a sharp increase in suicides among farmers who were cultivating their own land (134), possibly as a result of severe economic or climate-related difficulties that year. Though the number dropped to 123 in 2022, the data reveals a persistent crisis, particularly impacting agricultural laborers and small-scale farmers.

Climate change is adding another layer of distress, with fluctuating temperatures, erratic rainfall, groundwater depletion, and extreme heat further harming their livelihoods. Mahim Mazumder says, "The weather has changed dramatically! In the past, around the 15th day of Bhadhro Mash (September), we'd see mist, signaling the onset of winter, which was crucial for vegetable crops."

However, now floods disrupt the farmers' schedules.

"We once experimented with various crop varieties, but now we're forced to stick to the basics, fearing total loss. While we know how to handle traditional flooding, this extreme heat is new, and we don't know how to cope. Creeper plants wither in the heat, and even our livestock struggle—some have collapsed from heatstroke.

Crops that used to thrive in higher temperatures now wilt under the pressure of climate change. Every flood wipes out everything, and even during normal seasons, we face a 20 percent reduction in yield due to the rising heat and poor-quality inputs," says Mash.

The Indian government recognizes the impact of climate change on agriculture and farmers. Since 2014, a total of 1,888 climate-resilient crop varieties have been developed, along with 68 location-specific climate adaptation technologies, which have been demonstrated to farming communities for broader adoption.

But without adaptation, rainfed rice yields could drop by 20 percent by 2050 and 47 percent by 2080, while irrigated rice may decline by 3.5 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Wheat yields are projected to decrease by 19.3 percent by 2050 and 40 percent by 2080.

Kharif maize yields are expected to fall by 18 percent in 2050 and 23 percent by 2080. Climate change not only reduces crop yields but also lowers produce quality, with extreme events like droughts severely impacting food consumption for all.

The agrarian crisis in India runs deep, rooted in financial strain, crop failures, and climate-related challenges that are pushing the farming community to the edge. Rising suicide rates among agricultural laborers reveal just how precarious their situation has become.

As farmers like Mahim Mazumder continue to face the effects of climate change—unpredictable floods, rising temperatures, and reduced crop yields—their livelihoods and futures remain at risk. This isn't just a crisis of economics or agriculture; it's a human crisis affecting generations who have relied on farming for survival.

While the Indian government has made strides by developing climate-resilient crop varieties and location-specific technologies, these measures are not being adopted at the scale and speed necessary to prevent further losses. The impacts of climate change are no longer a distant concern but an immediate threat, eroding not only the output from farms but also the lives of those who till the land.

As climate change accelerates, so too must the response from policymakers and institutions. It's not enough to focus on agricultural yields alone—reforms must also prioritize the well-being of the farmers themselves, ensuring that they have the resources and support needed to adapt, survive, and thrive in the face of this growing crisis.

If we fail to act, the consequences will be devastating, not just for India's farming community but for the nation's food security as a whole.

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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service