For more than a decade, Indian agriculture has been marked by deceleration in growth and distress of farmers. This crisis is structural and institutional in nature, with farmers' suicides symptomatic of deep-seated maladies that have engulfed the agricultural sector. This book brings together for the first time a detailed analysis of this crisis in all its dimensions. The complexity of the issues is unravelled by addressing both the macro context and the regional-level manifestations of the agrarian crisis. The macro dimensions include detailed analysis of structural, institutional and policy changes; institutional credit, and state of agricultural research. Case studies of five states–Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Punjab, which experienced high and unusual incidence of farmers' suicides and agrarian distress–present the micro-perspectives. These case studies not only bring out the diversity of conditions prevalent in the states, but also highlight the common problem of failure of public support systems in agriculture. The methods used range from models of explanation based on data from national surveys to discussion of state-specific situations seen through farmer household surveys. Providing a comprehensive picture of the state of Indian agriculture at the turn of the twenty-first century, this book will be useful to researchers, policymakers, civil society organizations and students of Indian economy, polity, and society.
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