Farmer Suicides in India and Australia: Differences and Surprising Similarities

Abstract:     
Australia and India are two physically large countries but the similarity seemingly ends there. While Australia is affluent and predominantly urban with a low overall population density and practices land and capital intensive agriculture India exhibits diametrically opposite characteristics. It is therefore quite strange to find that both India and Australia have comparable farmer suicide rates which are high by international standards. This common feature can be attributed to water scarcity which is natural in the case of Australia and mostly the outcome of political lobbying in the Indian case. Certain sociological developments arising out of technological change also play a key role in the Australian case.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Suicide, Agriculture, Irrigation, Drought

JEL Classification: A10, B40, 010

working papers series