Why are cotton farmers committing suicide?
The main reason is that the cotton farmer is not able to recover his input costs due to the vagaries of weather, especially when there are no rains during the monsoons. The input cost includes the expenses on seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. But the cost of his own labour never gets repaid. So, the poor farmer continues to work like a bonded labour on his own field. This problem is of a different nature and not related to cotton farming. No soil is better than the black cotton soil found in Vidarbha. The issue here is to seek an alternative technology that requires least amount of water to irrigate the cotton crop such that the farmers have a decent earning. The essential prerequisite for acquiring a decent earning is that the cost of growing the crop should not exceed its sale price. If this does not happen, the farmer is bound to carry the burden of a heavy debt. Previously, the farmers were not committing suicide because the input cost was much less than that of today and they ea
