R. S. Deshpumde and Saroja Arora’s work ‘Agrarian Crisis and Farmer Suicides’ is a field work based study. It was Conducted by the Center for Rural Studies, Lai Bahadur Shastri National Academy and Administration, Mussoori in 2007. This volume deals with the problems of farmers’ suicides across the state. Agrarian crisis in Karnataka can be understood in the following way.

It is acknowledged fact that between 1993 and 2003,100,248 farmers committed suicide in India. Suicide is not confined to Karnataka alone. It has been reported among the sugarcane growers of UP, cotton growers of Andhra Pradesh and spice/ coffee growers of Kerala. It has been reported from Orissa and West Bengal as well.

Karnataka has no history of farmers committing suicide even during the situation of acute agrarian crisis. Even the unorganised farmers would resort to other tactics such as throwing agricultural commodities on the roads, burning their crops and so on. However, suicide was an attempt to retain the identity as a distinct social category within the larger economy.

In this context, the report of the Agricultural Department, Government of Karnataka is important. Between 2003 and 2012, a total of 2909 farmers committed suicide. On the contrary, the Central Government claimed that from 2000-01 to 2005-06, around 8600 farmers committed suicide which is the highest figure when compared to any other state in fact Maharashtra is relegated to third position in the suicide rate.

However, if we calculate the statistics provided by the Veeresh Committee report, including other press reports one can estimate the number of suicides is more than 5000. Region-wise the highest suicide rate was reported from the Old Mysore areas, followed by the Old Bombay Presidency areas and the Old Hyderabad region.

The Old Madras Presidency area, as well as Coorg also reported suicides, however their number is less. In fact, Old Mysore and Old Bombay Presidency areas are better known for irrigation. Most of these who committed suicide lived near the tail end of the canal. The beginning of the suicides can be traced back to the year 1998, when farmers in Bihar, who were involved in cultivating toor dal, a market oriented agricultural crop committed suicide.

In the two years, farmer suicides were largely concentrated in the drought-prone districts of north Karnataka or confined to economically backward, drought-prone regions such as Gulbarga and Bidar. However, after 2000, the phenomenon shifted to relatively advanced agricultural regions, particularly Mandya, Hassan, Shimoga, Davanagere, Koppal and even Chikamagalur and Kodagu.