Articles | Volume 373
https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-373-115-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/piahs-373-115-2016
12 May 2016
 | 12 May 2016

A socio-hydrological comparative assessment explaining regional variances in suicide rate amongst farmers in Maharashtra, India

Nadja I. den Besten, Saket Pande, and Hubert H. G. Savenije

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Cited articles

Agriculture Census Division: Agricultural Census Data Base, available at: http://agcensus.dacnet.nic.in/, last access: 20 December 2015, 2011.
FAO: Fertilizer use by crop in India, Tech. rep., Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, Italy, 2005.
FAO: Crop Water Information, available at: http://www.fao.org/nr/water/c, last access: 11 January 2016, 2015.
Fan, S., Brzeska, J., Keyzer, M., and Halsema, A.: From subsistence to profit: Transforming smallholder farms, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Tech. rep., 30 pp., 2013.
Fischer, G., Nachtergaele, F. O., Prieler, S., Teixeira, E., Tóth, G., van Velthuizen, H., Verelst, L., and Wiberg, D.: Global Agro-ecological Zones Assessment for Agriculture (GAEZ 2008), IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria and FAO, Rome, Italy, 2008.
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Maharashtra is one of the states in India that has witnessed highest rates of farmer suicides as proportion of total number of suicides. We interpret the crisis using a socio-hydrological model in two adjoining regions in Maharashtra, Marathwada and Desh, with higher farmer suicide rates in the former. The analysis confirms existing narratives: low (soil) water storage capacities, no irrigation and access to alternative sources of incomes are to blame for the crisis.