Wave Of Suicides Among Indian Farmers

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Sky News

Wave Of Suicides Among Indian Farmers
:09am UK, Friday November 18, 2011

Alex Rossi, India correspondent

The record suicide rate among farmers in India continues to rise and is threatening the country's stability and future development, according to campaigners.
They are blaming the government's policies for the agrarian crisis and are demanding it takes urgent action.

More than a quarter of a million farmers have killed themselves in the last 16 years in what is the largest recorded wave of suicides in history.

~snip~
Vandana Moohorle is now bringing up her children alone after her husband killed himself by drinking pesticide.

Like many farmers, he had been persuaded to use genetically modified seeds by the possibility of a better harvest. What he wasn't told was that they needed more rain than the region provided.



Read more: http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16112805

[No Joe]

1. A quarter of a million???

JESUS!!!!!

[ellisonz]

2. Probably not too far off...

Farmers in India became the centre of considerable concern in the 1990s when the journalist P Sainath highlighted the large number of suicides among them. Official reports initially denied the farmer suicides but as more and more information came to light the government began to accept that farmers in India were under considerable stress. On figures there was much debate since the issue was so emotive. The government tried to underplay the cases of farmer deaths, intellectual supporters of the farmers preferred to inflate them. More than 17,500 farmers a year killed themselves between 2002 and 2006, according to experts who have analyzed government statistics.<2> Others traced the increase in farmer suicides to the early 1990s.<3> It was said, a comprehensive all-India study is still awaited, that most suicides occurred in states of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Punjab.<4><5><6><7><8> The situation was grim enough to force at least the Maharashtra government to set up a dedicated office to deal with farmers distress.<9>

In 2006, the state of Maharashtra, with 4,453 farmers’ suicides accounted for over a quarter of the all-India total of 17,060, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). NCRB also stated that there were at least 16,196 farmers' suicides in India in 2008, bringing the total since 1997 to 199,132 .<10> According to another study by the Bureau, while the number of farm suicides increased since 2001, the number of farmers has fallen, as thousands abandoning agriculture in distress.<[br />
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India

[RainDog]

3. k&r n/t

[slay]

4. Monsanto strikes again -- they are murderers

forcing or tricking farmers into buying their shitty seed - which they have genetically engineered NOT to produce seeds. that way the farmers have to BUY more seeds every year from this fuckers. i find it really odd that Monsanto is not called out by name in this article - they should be. someone, somehow, needs to shut them down.

[Nihil]

8. "Monsanto is not called out by name in this article"

The OP is from Sky.

Murdoch is one of the ruling 0.01% and will be golf buddies & cocktail partners
with the heads of Monsanto et al so there is every reason not to mention the
actual name of the murdering bastards responsible.

:grr:

[slay]

12. yeah the article - while telling some truths - had that Murdoch stench about it

you know - the kind where they leave out a really important fact about the story - like THE NAME OF THE COMPANY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SEEDS OF DEATH!

but Monsanto has such a bad reputation - we know it was them - which is pretty fucked up that we know who's doing it - even when they try not to tell us - yet nobody will stop them. Murdoch and Monsanto - two of the most evil entities on the planet!

[Crowman1979]

9. +1000

[Enthusiast]

5. Ain't globalism wonderful?

[SpiralHawk]

6. This is the corporate ag 'green' revolution

of genetically mutant seeds that must be purchased again and again and again every year -- and ag chemicals which also must be purchased, and which poison the land and water.

This is actually lowballing the number of farmer suicides.

[dotymed]

7. How sickly ironic. The GM seeds have a suicide gene .

Yes, they can only be used for one season and then they self-destruct. TPTB have been diligently working on population control (they only need so many slaves) those unable to work are a "drain" on THEIR resources.
The "demands" released by OWS yesterday are realistic solutions to many American and world problems and inequities. We must stand for the thoughtful solutions put forth by OWS. Keith said something last night, that made so much sense and shows the reality of our government and their incentive not to solve our nations problems.

He said something like: all of these politicians "working" for so long to come up with solutions for America's problems, and the people of OWS present realistic, workable solutions in such a short time.

This was the gist of his comment, not a quote.

[Kaleko]

11. Thank you for spelling out the Monsanto-engineered suicide story.

Needs to be told until those chickens com home to roost.

[Mosaic]

10. More of capitalism's victims

May God have mercy on their souls.

End capitalism/corporatism. End it now!

For the good of all of us.