Repeated crop failures, debt hassles, lack of alternative sources of income, absence of institutional finance have left the farmers with no other solution other than ending their lives. Another disturbing trend has been observed where farmers commit suicide in order to avail relief and benefits announced by the government to support the families of the farmers who have died. This is true in the case of several farmers in Andhra Pradesh who committed suicide so that their families could atleast benefit from the Government's relief programmes.

              Agriculture works out profitably where the size of the land is medium to large to benefit from the economies of large scale production. The fact is that majority of the farmers in India own as little as 2 acres of land, cultivation on such small sized lands is not feasible, in many cases, the farmers are not even the owners of the land, which makes profitable cultivation impossible because a significant portion of the earnings go towards the payment of lease for the land. At times, even the middle to large land owners are faced with the difficulties of the vast majority of farmers, however, they are able to atleast realize their investment for each crop.

                 The farmers normally resort to borrowing from money lenders, in the absence of institutionalized finance. Where institutional finance is available, the ordinary farmer does not have a chance of availing it because of the "procedures" involved in disbursing the finance. The institutional finance, where available is mostly availed by the medium or large land owners, the small farmers do not even have the awareness of the existence of such facilities. The money lender is the only source of finance to the farmers. Should the crops fail, the farmers fall into a debt trap and crop failures piled up over the years give them no other option other than ending their lives. The input - output ratio, in terms of money invested in agriculture is very meager, primarily because of raising cost of inputs and insufficient support prices from the government.

             India has witnessed a spate of droughts over the last decade. The worst affected being the farmers of Rayalaseema districts in Andhra Pradesh, it is the cotton farmers in the state of Maharashtra. Nature has repeatedly failed the farmers of these states and owing to lack of facilities to save their crops, these farmers have no means to face the adversities of crop failures. If the farmers are at the mercy of monsoons for timely water for their crops, they are at the mercy of the government for alternative irrigation facilities. The Government cannot be trusted to always act in the interest of the farmers.

                  To understand this, one must analyse the agricultural set up in India. Indian agriculture is predominantly dependant on nature. Irrigation facilities that are currently available, do not cover the entire cultivable land. Any failure of nature, directly affects the fortunes of the farmers. Secondly, Indian agriculture is largely an unorganized sector, there is no systematic planning in cultivation, farmers work on lands of uneconomical sizes, institutional finances are not available and minimum purchase prices of the government do not in reality reach the poorest farmer. Added to this, the cost of agricultural inputs have been steadily rising over the years, farmers' margins of profits have been narrowing because the price rise in inputs is not complemented by an increase in the purchase price of the agricultural produce. Even today, in several parts of the country, agriculture is a seasonal occupation. In many districts, farmers get only one crop per year and for the remaining part of the year, they find it difficult to make both ends meet.

              The farmers normally resort to borrowing from money lenders, in the absence of institutionalized finance. Where institutional finance is available, the ordinary farmer does not have a chance of availing it because of the "procedures" involved in disbursing the finance. The institutional finance, where available is mostly availed by the medium or large land owners, the small farmers do not even have the awareness of the existence of such facilities. The money lender is the only source of finance to the farmers. Should the crops fail, the farmers fall into a debt trap and crop failures piled up over the years give them no other option other than ending their lives. The input - output ratio, in terms of money invested in agriculture is very meager, primarily because of raising cost of inputs and insufficient support prices from the government.

                Agriculture has always been celebrated as the primary sector in India. India is an agrarian economy, which means, Agriculture is the pre-dominant sector of the Indian economy. True to this, even to this day, inspite of the Indian economy opening out to the world and globalization, close to 70% of the population still depends on agriculture for its livelihood. The secondary and tertiary sectors in India are growing at rapid rates, still a vast majority of Indians continue to depend on agriculture. Every plan for the growth of the Indian economy aims at agricultural development, which is justified because to achieve the growth rates that the economy aims at, it is important to first address the growth rate of the major sector of the economy. Since the first Five year plan, India's focus has been on agriculture and after 50 years of Five year plans, where does Indian agriculture stand? 
            Thanks to the Green Revolution, India is now self-sufficient in food production, gone are the days when India had to import even food grains for daily consumption. Indian agriculture has been making technological advancement as well. Today, a visit to the villages will reveal that more and more farmers are adopting mechanization for their farming, there is an overall improvement in the agricultural trends in India.