Farmer Suicides

It is estimated by the National Crime Recrods Bureau, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs in India, that over 200,000 farmers have committed suicide since trade liberalization in 1991. There are many reasons, all of which center around a new farming paradigm, dominated by foreign multinationals. and a lack of education and interest

in preserving the native diet, farming techniques and traditions of the nearly 400 million farmers in India.

The move to industrial farming techniques to increase the output of specific crops such as wheat and rice using high nitrogen fertilizers, a myriad of pesticides, fossil fuel powered equipment and now, geneticall modified seeds starting in 1965 is termed as the Green Revolution. Since then the rising costs of inputs, such as seeds, chemical fertilizers and petrol, compounded with environmental degradation of soils and water, has meant that farmers competing with highly subsidized developed nations like the U.S and the U.K, can't recover their costs with the sale of their harvest, and must borrow against it year after year.

The small land holding farmer, and rural farmer with no "official" deed to their lands, take out loans from private money lenders. With threat of violence or land takeover from private money lenders when the debts cannot be paid back, the farmer drinks the very pesticide they used on their field.

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