RBI: Don’t waive farm loans often

Mumbai: Pitching for growth in the agriculture sector to check farmer suicides, RBI deputy governor H.R. Khan on Sunday said debt burden is not the only reason for such tragic steps even as he warned against frequent farm loan waivers. “Prevention is better than cure,” Mr Khan said, while adding there are occasions where loan waivers are needed, but in the long term it is important to ensure that such problems do not reoccur.

In a speech at the 34th Foundation Day of Nabard, Mr Khan said there is an inverse relationship between agricultural growth and the suicides committed by farmers. “There is a sharp negative correlation between agricultural growth and farmer suicides. It is almost 0.72 per cent... When growth is there, (number of) suicides is less,” he said.

Mr Khan also said that the suicide case of Gajendra Singh Rathore at a politically rally in Delhi suggests that the problem still remains in the agriculture sector and many people have suggested structural transformation of the sector.Besides indebtedness, other reasons like crop failures, social, cultural, ecological factors which have led to farmer suicides, he said.