Agriculture in the Age of Inequality:
The article exposes the systemic erosion of India’s farm economy due to corporate capture, predatory commercialization, and decades of neoliberal policies.
- Over 4,00,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995; NCRB (2022) reported 11,290 deaths, indicating that over one farmer dies every hour due to indebtedness and market distress.
- The NSS 77th Round (2018–19) reveals that average farm household income is ₹10,218/month, marking a 10% decline from 2012–13, reflecting stagnation amid rising costs.
- Between 1991 and 2011, India lost nearly 15 million full-time cultivators, with 2,000 farmers quitting agriculture every day, signalling a collapse in rural viability.
- The 217 Indian billionaires’ wealth (US trillion) equals 58× the agriculture budget, exposing a stark contrast between rural poverty and elite accumulation.
- Cotton’s purchasing power plunged—farmers who once bought 12 gm of gold per quintal in the 1970s can’t buy 1 gm today, showing the widening gap between input inflation and stagnant output prices.
