Marathwada, one of the most drought prone areas in Maharashtra, continues to be in the news over the last few months due to the severe agarian crisis that the region has been facing and the very high rates of farmers suicides. In fact, Marathwada has now been referred to as the suicide capital of the country with a steady increase in farmer suicides going as high as 1024 this year.
The paper titled 'Lack of irrigation facilities, drought conditions and farmers suicides in Marathwada region, India' published in the American Journal of Rural Development, presents the findings of a study that explored the causes of death or the factors that led to suicide among farmers in the region by talking to household members of 90 farmers in the area who had committed suicide.
A field surveyor visited each of these houses to collect information about the cause of death as well as information on marital status, occupation, alcohol use and education in the household. The underlying cause of each death was sought by an enhanced form of verbal autopsy, known as the routine, reliable, representative, re-sampled household investigation of mortality with medical evaluation (RHIME).
Data was collected using interview schedule and information on landholding, irrigation facilities supplementary business, choice of crop, seed source, technical facilities availability, sale of the product, indebtedness, monthly income and expenditure, and reasons behind suicides was obtained.
The paper ends by making some recommendations to prevent this situation among farmers that includes: