Read the following passage carefully

Being an agricultural country from the beginning, India ranks second worldwide in farming outputs. With agriculture employing more than 50% of India’s workforce, it also is the largest source of livelihood in India with more than 70% of its rural households depending primarily on farming. Despite the incredible importance of farmers to the Indian economy and way of life, farmers in India have a history of debts, extreme poverty and low quality of life. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 296,438 people in the farming sector in India have committed suicide from 1995 to 2019.

According to an NSSO report from 2016, the average Indian farmer earns about Rs 77,112 annually, which is about $1,045. As the Economic Times in India stated, only about 50% or less of the household income of a farming family comes from farming, while the rest comes from other sources. To supplement for low income, many farmers take up more than one job, sometimes working as a bus driver or security guard for example.

The rising costs of farming and the low pay for farm produce have pushed many farmers into a cycle of vicious debts. According to the Economic Times in India, 85% of India’s farmers operate on less than five acres of land. With 82% of farmers being small and marginal and contributing 51% of agricultural output, small farmers are the backbone of the agricultural industry. Despite this, farming remains an unstable and difficult profession.

Risks in production further aggravate the low quality of life for small farmers. The increased cost of cultivation, inadequate irrigation, drought, flood and crop failure all contribute to the lack of viability in the farming profession and debt of farmers. Additionally, difficulty in selling within the market can make or break the income of a farmer. Agricultural costs and unstable incomes have caused many farmers to take on even more debt. Furthermore, money-lending due to necessity and often the inability to pay back loans, have pushed farmers further into poverty and debt.

While the above-discussed factors are integral to agriculture, socio-cultural factors are catalytic in the process of agrarian crisis. Expenditure or investment portfolio of rural households has changed. Education has become important. People have become health conscious. Lifestyle induced expenditures like consumption of milk products, soft drinks, cosmetics, entertainment, etc, have increased. Over the years quality education and health have become costly. The gap between public-private and rural-urban services has widened significantly.

Poor quality public education is not as dangerous as poor-quality public health. Households are found spending increasing amounts on private health services as the quality of public health services is deteriorating by the day. Public dispensaries remain sans facilities and medicines. Households tend to resort to all possible means in order to save their dear ones. Given the high health cost, coupled with the unscrupulous means adopted by the private practitioners, one serious health problem can cripple a household in the long run.

On the whole, the cost of survival has gone up substantially. These costs are over and above the standard expenses on lifecycle events like marriage, death, etc. But, returns on agriculture have stagnated due to technological and ecological constraints. While unable to control these expenses, farmers are trying to experiment with new seeds, inputs and technology in order to enhance their incomes. In the process they are getting entrapped in debt. In a nutshell, the agrarian crisis in India is as much socio-cultural as it is agricultural.