The Indian state of Punjab, which initially benefited greatly from the green revolution, has suffered from a dramatic rise in agrarian suicides for several decades. We use a carefully constructed sample of over 1,000 farmers in the epicentre, and build a three-stage model of agricultural production decisions across multiple input and multiple output choices, indebtedness from multiple sources and suicide via an IPWRA (inverse probability weighted regression adjustment) treatment model to trace the potential roots of the situation. Results show that the use of informal credit from commission agents by farmers accounts for 10 percentage points (or 20%) of all suicides in our sample, regardless of other household factors and choices.
AFDR. (2000). Suicides in rural areas of Punjab: A report (in Punjabi). Association for Democratic Rights.
2.
AgarwalS. K., GuptaS., SinghV., SutarR., & NairD. (2022). Insurance as an instrument of financial security in addressing mental illness among agricultural workers in the LMICs. medRxiv preprint. 10.1101/2022.06.09.22275910
3.
AhluwaliaM. S. (1978). Rural poverty and agriculture performance in India. Journal of Development Studies, 14(2), 298–323.
4.
AuffhammerM., & CarletonT. A. (2018). Regional crop diversity and weather shocks in India. Asian Development Review, 35(2), 113–130.
5.
BhallaG. S. (1995). Agriculture growth and industrial development in Punjab. In MellorJ. W. (Ed), Agriculture on the road to industrial development. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
6.
BhallaG. S., & ChadhaG. K. (1983). The green revolution and the small peasant: A study of income distribution among Punjab cultivators. Concept Publishers.
7.
BhangooK. S. (2005). Agrarian crisis: Indebtedness and farmers’ suicides in Punjab. Journal of Agriculture Development and Policy, 17(2), 43–60.
8.
BhangooK. S. (2006). Farmers’ suicides in Punjab: A study of Bathinda district. Journal of Agriculture Development and Policy, 18(1&2), 13–32.
9.
CarletonT. (2017). Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 8746–8751.
10.
CattaneoM. D. (2010). Efficient semiparametric estimation of multi-valued treatment effects under ignorability. Journal of Econometrics, 155(2), 138–154.
11.
ChabaA. A. (2019, March16). Watered down waiver, lack of reforms has farmers in a bind. Indian Express.
12.
ChadhaG. K. (1986). The state and rural economic transformation: The case of Punjab 1950-85. Sage.
13.
ChristianC., HenselL., & RothC. (2019). Income shocks and suicides: Causal evidence from Indonesia. Review of Economics and Statistics, 101(5), 905–920.
14.
DeshpandeR. S. (2009). Agrarian transition and farmers’ distress in Karnataka. In ReddyD. N. & MishraS. (Eds), Agrarian crisis in India. Oxford University Press.
15.
GangI. N., NatarajanR. R., & SenK. (2022). Finance, gender, and entrepreneurship: India’s informal sector firms. Journal of Development Studies, 58(7), 1383–1402.
16.
GillA. (2004). Interlinked agrarian credit markets: Case study of Punjab. Economic & Political Weekly, 39(33), 3741–3751.
17.
GillA. (2010). Punjab peasantry: A question of life and debt. In DeshpandeR. S. & AroraS. (Eds), Agrarian crisis and farmer suicides (pp. 292–311). Sage.
18.
GillA. (2016). Agriculture credit in Punjab: Have policy initiatives made a dent in informal credit markets? In SinghL. & SinghN. (Eds), Economic transformation of a developing economy: The experience of Punjab, India. Nature Springer.
19.
GillA., & SinghL. (2006, June30). Farmers’ suicides and response of public policy: Evidence, diagnosis and alternatives from Punjab. Economic & Political Weekly, 41(26), 2762–2768.
20.
GillS. S. (1988). Contradictions of Punjab model of growth and search for alternatives. Economic & Political Weekly, 23(42), 2167–2173.
21.
GillS. S. (2001). Land reforms in India: Interventions for agrarian capitalist transformation in Punjab and Haryana. Sage.
22.
IDC. (1998). Suicides in rural Punjab. Institute of Development and Communication.
23.
IyerK. G., & ManickM. S. (2000). Indebtedness, impoverishment and suicides in rural Punjab. Indian Publishers and Distributors.
24.
JohlS. S. (1986). Diversification of agriculture in Punjab (Expert Committee Report). Government of Punjab.
25.
JohlS. S. (2002). Agriculture production pattern adjustment programme in Punjab for productivity growth (Expert Committee Report II). Government of Punjab.
26.
KamalN. (2020, January9). Punjab most prone to suicides due to illness (online edition). Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/punjab-most-prone-to-suicides-due-to-illness/articleshow/73180237.cms
27.
NairK. N., & SinghG. (2014). Some issues concerning the role of technological and institutional changes in the growth and transformation of agriculture in Punjab. In SinghL. & SinghN. (Eds), Economic transformation of a developing economy: The experience of Punjab, India. Nature Springer.
28.
National Crime Records Bureau. (2019). Accidental deaths and suicides in India. https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/ADSI-2019-FULL-REPORT.pdf
29.
NibberG. S. (2020, January10). Punjab saw one farmer suicide a day in 2018, says NCRB; grossly underreported, claim experts (online edition). Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/punjab-saw-one-farmer-suicide-a-day-in-2018-says-ncrb-grossly-underreported-claim-experts/story-sidixYYn5gBBSBwNm5DDVI.html
30.
SarkarA. (2020). Agricultural mechanization in India: A Study on the ownership and investment in farm machinery by cultivator households across agro-ecological regions. Millennial Asia, 11(2), 160–186.
31.
SehgalM. (2019, September12). Unable to clear debt, 22-year-old Barnala man commits suicide. Just like his father, grandfather (online edition). India Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/punjab-debt-suicide-amarinder-governemnt-barnala-1598249-2019-09-12
32.
SharmaR., & SinghG. (2015). Access to modern agricultural technologies and farmer household welfare: Evidence from India. Millennial Asia, 6(1), 19–43.
33.
ShergillH. S. (1998). Rural credit and indebtedness in Punjab. Institute Development Communication.
34.
ShergillH. S. (2010). Growth of farm debt in Punjab 1997- To-2008. Institute Development Communication.
35.
SidhuR. S., BhullarA. S., & JoshiA. S. (2005). Income, employment and productivity growth in the farming sector of Punjab: Some issues. Journal of Indian School of Political Economy, 17(1&2), 59–72.
36.
SidhuR. S., DhillionB. S., & ThindT. S. (2020). Stocktaking of innovation for agriculture in Punjab: Challenges and resposes. In SinghL. & GillA. (Eds), Agriculture innovation systems in Asia: Towards inclusive rural development. Routledge-Taylors and Frances Group.
37.
SinghK., SinghS., & KingraH. S. (2009). Agrarian crisis and depeasantisation in Punjab: Status of small/marginal farmers who left agriculture. Indian Journal of Agriculture Economics, 64(4), 585–603.
38.
SinghL. (2015). Towards alternative strategy for economic development in Punjab. Journal of Punjab Studies, 22(2), 2015.
39.
SinghL., & SinghS. (2002). Deceleration of economic growth in Punjab: Evidence, eplanation and a way-out. Economic & Political Weekly, 37(6), 579–586.
40.
SinghL., BhangooK. S., & SharmaR. (2016). Agrarian distress and farmer suicides in North India. Routledge India.
41.
SinghL., BhangooK. S., & SharmaR. (2020). Agrarian distress and farmer suicides in North India (second edition). Routledge-Taylor and Frances Group.
42.
SinghN. (2020). Punjab agriculture innovation challenge. In SinghL. & GillA. (Eds), Agriculture innovation systems in Asia: Towards inclusive rural development. Routledge-Taylors and Frances Group.
43.
SinghS. (2004). Crisis and diversification in Punjab agriculture. Economic & Political Weekly, 39(52), 5583–5590. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262125026_Crisis_and_Diversification_in_Punjab_Agriculture_Role_of_State_and_Agribusiness
44.
Times of India. (2019, March2). Punjab govt approves debt relief plan for farm labourers (online edition). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/punjab-govt-approves-debt-relief-plan-for-farm-labourers/articleshow/68236068.cms
45.
WooldridgeJ. M. (2007). Inverse probability weighted estimation for general missing data problems. Journal of Econometrics, 141(2), 1281–1301.
