Farmer suicides have become such a common occurrence in Maharashtra today that they barely stir the nation’s conscience. It no longer shocks the urban mind to learn that hundreds of farmers have taken their own lives in a single quarter. Between January and March 2025 alone, 767 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra – a number that should have sparked national outrage, but instead was quietly folded into the pages of bureaucratic reports and political statements.

How did the Maratha land, once known for its resilience and agricultural prosperity, become the epicenter of agrarian despair?

The Geography of Grief: Why Vidarbha Bleeds

A closer look reveals that Vidarbha – the eastern region of Maharashtra – is ground zero for this agrarian catastrophe. While the rest of the country witnesses seasonal distress, Vidarbha lives in a state of constant emergency. Over the past two decades, it has transformed into India’s most prominent suicide zone for farmers.

The reasons are manifold: erratic monsoons, back-to-back droughts followed by untimely floods, soaring input costs, declining crop prices, and mounting debt burdens. For Vidarbha’s farmers, nature is both a cruel master and an unreliable ally.

The Vicious Debt Trap

At the heart of the crisis lies debt. Farmers who borrow for seeds, fertilisers, diesel, or equipment often do so at exorbitant interest rates – particularly from informal moneylenders when institutional credit remains inaccessible. When crops fail or markets collapse, the mounting debt becomes an unbearable weight.

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Despite central and state government announcements of loan waivers and compensation, implementation remains selective and opaque. Of the 767 suicides recorded in the first three months of 2025, only 376 families received the announced compensation of Rs 1 lakh. Over 200 families were denied any aid, with officials citing “non-fulfillment of criteria.” What these criteria are, and who sets them, remain wrapped in bureaucratic opacity.

Agriculture: An Economy in Decline

Agriculture’s contribution to India’s GDP has steadily declined, even as more than half of the country’s population remains dependent on it. This disconnect between the rural economy and national policy priorities is nowhere more visible than in Maharashtra.

Input costs – particularly for seeds, fertilisers, and fuel – have skyrocketed. A bag of hybrid cotton seed, for example, which cost Rs 900 in 2010, now retails at nearly Rs 2000. Diesel prices hover around Rs 90 per litre, while electricity for irrigation remains erratic and insufficient.

Meanwhile, the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) declared by the government seldom reflect market realities. Often, the procurement mechanism either doesn’t reach remote farmers or is plagued by inefficiencies. The result? Farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices.

The Climate Crisis Amplifies the Agrarian Crisis

The climate crisis is not a future threat – it is the present reality for India’s farmers. In Vidarbha, the monsoon is increasingly unpredictable. When it does arrive, it either skips essential sowing periods or delivers torrential rain that destroys young crops. Alternating cycles of drought and floods – once rare – are now the new normal.

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Despite this, India’s agriculture policy remains rooted in Green Revolution paradigms: water-intensive crops like sugarcane, rice, and cotton continue to receive institutional support, while sustainable models and local food crops receive negligible attention.

Policy Paralysis and Institutional Apathy

Perhaps the most painful dimension of the crisis is the institutional apathy that surrounds it. Agricultural reform is routinely promised but rarely implemented. Loan waiver schemes, like the Rs 34,000 crore package announced in 2017 by the Maharashtra government, were riddled with delays and exclusions.

Moreover, India’s agricultural insurance schemes remain deeply flawed. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), touted as a safety net for farmers, has often ended up benefitting insurance companies more than the farmers. Compensation disbursal is slow, and coverage terms are restrictive. In many suicide cases, families reveal that no insurance was ever paid, despite claims being filed.

The Human Cost Behind the Statistics

Numbers have a cruel ability to dehumanise. “767 farmers” is not just a figure – it is 767 families shattered beyond repair. It is hundreds of wives left widowed, thousands of children forced out of school, and elderly parents left without support. It is 767 dreams withering on parched land.

Take the case of Prakash Jadhav, a 38-year-old cotton farmer from Yavatmal. He took a loan of Rs 2 lakh to sow cotton and soybeans. The rains arrived late, pests attacked his crops, and market prices plummeted. His entire season’s earnings were less than Rs 60,000. With creditors pressuring him and no other source of income, Prakash hanged himself from a neem tree near his field in February.

His widow Sunita now works as a daily wage laborer. Their 10-year-old son has dropped out of school. No compensation has reached them. “They say we didn’t have the right papers,” she says, holding back tears.

India’s Other Suicide Hotspots: A National Emergency

Maharashtra is not alone. Other states – including Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Punjab – are witnessing similar patterns. In Bundelkhand, farmers have begun selling their cattle and migrating to cities. In Punjab, rising chemical input costs have driven indebtedness to historic highs.

What’s common across these regions is the broken economic model that governs agriculture: one where the farmer bears all the risk, but reaps none of the rewards.

What Can Be Done? A Multi-Layered Solution

The crisis is complex – but not unsolvable. What is needed is political will, systemic reform, and genuine empathy.

1. Revamp Credit Systems: Formal banking access must be expanded and made farmer-friendly. Microcredit models should be backed by strong institutional guarantees. Farmers should never be forced to approach loan sharks.

2. Strengthen MSP and Procurement: A guaranteed and realistic MSP backed by effective procurement systems is essential. Prices must be linked to real input costs, with provisions for inflation.

3. Invest in Agro-Ecology: Shifting to sustainable, low-input farming practices such as organic farming, agroforestry, and mixed cropping can reduce farmers’ dependency on expensive chemicals and increase resilience.

4. Insurance Reforms: Agricultural insurance must be made farmer-centric. Premiums should be minimal, coverage expansive, and claim disbursal time-bound.

5. Water Management: Massive investment in decentralised irrigation, rainwater harvesting, and drought-resistant crops is essential. Dependence on monsoons must be mitigated.

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6. Mental Health Support: Counseling, awareness, and helplines must be established in rural areas. Every Primary Health Centre should have at least one trained mental health professional.

7. Empower Women and Farmer Collectives: Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and women’s cooperatives can boost bargaining power, enable shared resources, and reduce risk.

Media’s Role: From Sensationalism to Sensitivity

Mainstream media often covers farmer suicides only when numbers spike or during elections. This sporadic attention fails to build sustained pressure for reform. Media houses must go beyond sensationalist headlines and engage in ground reporting, policy analysis, and storytelling that foregrounds the farmer’s voice.

The Cost of Indifference

Each farmer’s suicide is not just a personal tragedy; it is a national failure. India, which takes pride in being an agrarian civilisation, must confront the irony that its food providers are dying of hunger, debt, and despair.

If 767 soldiers had died in three months, the nation would have been in mourning. If 767 corporate CEOs had resigned, it would have triggered an economic emergency. But 767 farmers die, and life goes on.

We must ask ourselves: What kind of development are we pursuing if the hands that feed us must end their lives to escape debt? How can we speak of a $5 trillion economy when our villages are drowning in tears?

Maharashtra is not an isolated tragedy. It is a warning. A mirror. A question. If not addressed now, Vidarbha will repeat itself across the map of India.

767 Big Questions?

Today, 767 empty homes in Maharashtra raise 767 unanswerable questions about justice, dignity, and the value of rural lives. They demand not just sympathy, but systemic change. And they leave us with a final, haunting thought:
If the farmers are dying, who will feed the nation tomorrow?

(Nazarullah Khan, Assistant Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at Safi Institute of Advanced Study (Autonomous), Vazhayoor, Kerala, is a passionate educator shaping future communicators through his expertise and mentorship. Beyond academia, he is an actor, writer, poet and film mentor, blending creativity with teaching to offer a unique perspective on media and storytelling.)