For some years now, surveys have indicated that a significant proportion of farmers want to give up farming. Underlying this phenomenon are two contradictory trends. One is the distress of the poorest, the small and marginal farmers (those who till less than two hectares and form 85 percent of cultivators), and, to some extent, the rural landless labour (who accounted for some 30 percent of India’s 220 million workforce in agriculture in 2012).
At the micro level, for the small, marginal farmer, when the crop fails due to unseasonal rain and if he is indebted, his situation becomes. . .
