Seeds Of Debt Sow Suicide In India

"Going into farming was the worst mistake I ever made," Mr. Bandharkawda said as he surveyed the lifeless fields from the porch of his mud house. "I didn't know what it was doing to my son — he hadn't bought any seeds for this year's crop because he couldn't afford to keep up with his debts. He never said anything, so I never knew about his suffering." Mr. Bandharkawda's peculiar form of suffering is part of an epidemic that is leading thousands of this region's farmers to take their lives. The extraordinary rise in suicides among farmers, a phenomenon that has grown dramatically in the past few years, has the government of India scrambling to respond, embarrassed by this dark shadow on the country's great economic rise. Politicians and lobbyists are competing to explain this wave of self-induced death. Some point to U.S. cotton subsidies, others to genetic-engineered hybrid seeds, to the prevalence of chemical-fertilizer farming, or to the rise of consumerism among the world's poor. While these factors all play a role in the region's problems, it is clear that there is a deeper and more fundamental cause, one that governments of rich and poor countries alike have failed to address. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070706.windia0607/BNStory/Front/home [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 9, 2007]

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