Amarwati is one of the 11 districts of Vidarbha region which is notoriously known for farmer suicides. It has been experiencing a distress situation in agriculture over the last decade and has been identified as one of the 6 districts where a special package to alleviate agricultural distress was launched by the Government of Maharashtra in the year 2005. But despite all these efforts the district has remained in the very same position through out these years, the reason for which could be attributed to the lack of natural resource management.
Malkapur is a small tribal hamlet located towards the north of Amarawati district which has its vicinity to major townships like Parathwada, Amarawati, Badnera and Chikaldhara Malkapur and the surrounding villages are critically affected by the agrarian crisis the reasons for which are as listed under:
1. Poor soil in quantity and quality
2. Debts forced on the farmers by the middlemen.
3. Extreme weather variability expected (IPCC, 2010) which can lead to droughts.
4. Poor education levels, both general and agricultural levels.
5. Lack of market linkages
6. Lack of storage facilities
7. Lack of saving mentality
8. Above all, lack of natural resource management
There is an old saying in Marathi “farmer take birth in debt and die in the same condition”. This was the position of farmers before independence and it still continue after 60 years of independence. Farmers of Malkapur and its neighboring villages still remain in poverty. The farmers commit suicide due to the fear of pressure from the money lenders. Their economic condition in many cases changes to such an extent that the farmers are unable to face the society. In this situation of loneliness and in absence of any institutional or social mechanism to fall back upon, farmers are forced to commit suicide.
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