2.1. Organic Farming versus Conventional Farming
Organic and conventional farming are the two common approaches to farming in agriculture. These approaches employ different methods and farming practices. On the other hand, both organic farming and conventional agriculture hold different challenges and implications within the global food chain. The agriculture sector is the backbone of economic development in many countries. As Kim [
11] asserts, governments have promoted and adopted organic farming for maintaining sustainable agriculture since the last decade. By contrast, farmers commonly practice conventional farming to improve productivity and meet the increasing demand for agricultural products. Kim [
11] notes that conventional farming has been an integral part of the agriculture sector since it ensures that it flourished. For this reason, there is an urgent need to address the best options that are available, so that the agricultural sector, not only in India but also in other countries across the globe can be improved [
11]. The concept of organic agriculture is a method of efficient use of locally available resources and other agriculture techniques such as fertility management, nutrient cycles, and pest control [
12].
Some scholars compare the environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming methods. According to Srendnicka-Tober et al. [
13], the global benefits of organic production methods are not limited to reducing soil degradation and erosion but also improving soil structure and fertility, protecting biodiversity, and increasing independence on external production inputs. The aforementioned features of organic production are crucial as far as the protection of natural resources is concerned. From this point of view, the organic farming method supports the concept of sustainable development. On the other hand, conventional farming results in biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and affects human health among others. It concludes that replacing conventional farming with organic farming translates into measurable economic values.
Organic farming is a system which avoids the use of chemicals in the farms by improving farming methods such as hormones, fertilizers, feed additives, and pesticides. However, the organic farming system relies largely on natural methods such as animal manure, crop residues, crop rotation, off-farm organic waste, use of the biological system of plant protection and nutritional mobilization. Organic farming is, therefore, a unique method of farming which promotes agro-ecosystem health such as soil biological activity, biological cycle, and biodiversity [
14]. Organic agriculture is capable of contributing to meaningful socio-economic and ecologically sustainable development, especially in developing countries across the globe. On the other hand, Kilcher [
15] asserts that organic farming can contribute to sustainable development with the application of organic principles, which translates into efficient management of local resources like manure and local seed varieties, which in turn, results in cost-effectiveness. In brief, organic farming is capable of contributing to sustainable development since it reduces the risk of yield failure and stabilizes returns, let alone improving the quality of life of small farmers’ families [
15]. The pros of organic cultivation are such as supporting healthy soil, pollinators, pest control, being eco-friendly, and offering an opportunity for specializing more nutrition and premium price. The cons of organic farming are that it receives no subsidies, has less infrastructure, there is less demand for organic pesticides, it faces marketing challenges, and there are higher costs at the beginning. While compared with conventional farming the pros and cons are as follows: low production cost, better yield, harmful for people and animals, environment effect, no sustainable economy for small scale farmers. This study chooses to focus on the southern part of India which, specifically Tamil Nadu state. The subject matter will center on productivity as well as the economic status that reflects from the use of both mechanisms of cultivation. Tamil Nadu is well known for its production of rice as it is the largest producer of rice in India, hence playing a pivotal role in assisting the country to achieve self-sufficiency. As stated earlier, governments support organic mechanisms by availing themselves of and facilitating research on the matter. There has been extensive research on the application of organic farming and the problems that are associated with either one or both mechanisms of cultivation [
16].
2.2. Organic Farming in India
The government of India has tried to promote organic agriculture in the nation at various levels. A lot of money has been put aside in India to assist farmers to improve organic farming. Previous studies conducted showed that various states in India such as Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra are promoting organic agriculture [
17]. Different projects have been initiated in these states to aid in developing organic agriculture. According to the results of the FiBL(Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) 2015, India has about 5.2 million hectares of organic land and organic producers of about 6.5 million [
18]. Therefore, India is found to be the largest organic agricultural producers in the world. Additionally, India has the most producers certified through the participatory guarantee system (PGS) followed by Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. These nations show that there is a possibility of enhancing and promoting organic agriculture as a method of ensuring sustainable agriculture [
18].
Organic farming in India has been used since ancient times. It involves a system of farming which is aimed at cultivating the land and producing crops in a way which keeps the soil in good health and alive. Sustainable agriculture is ensured in line with eco-friendly manner through the use of organic waste such as aquatic wastes, farm, crop and animal waste and other biological materials [
19]. India is found to possess a lot of potential in organic farming from small-scale farmers to large-scale farmers. Organic farming in India has produced high-quality products to increase the export rates of crops like rice. The agricultural market in India has improved and competition increased as the customers are looking for organic products due to their freshness, micro-organism free and nutrition value characteristics. Organic manure in India is readily available in rural areas making it easier for farmers to use them instead of spending more on commercial fertilizers which have negative effects on the environment. Therefore, the government of India has been emphasizing the use of organic farming methods since chemical fertilizers have led to depletion of soil as well as lowering the quality of products [
20].
India is one of the countries which has a large sector of agricultural activities. Some of the products which are a planted in India are rice, tea, herbs, some spices, and others. Before the Green Revolution, farmers used to use traditional ways of farming, in which these practices were environment-friendly. However, after the Green Revolution, farmers adapted the new farming methods whereby chemical fertilizers and pesticide were used, and this leads to a rapid rise in health impacts [
21]. The use of these artificial chemicals has also led to pest-resistant which also causing a lot of loss in the agricultural sector. Due to the high expense in acquiring chemical fertilizers which have a negative impact on the soil and environment, farmers in India have started using organic farming. Due to its strong agrarian-based culture, India has continued to promote organic farming by offering marketing services and training. The number of farmers who have adopted organic cultivation has increased at a faster rate. Large areas of land have also been put under organic management in India. This has been as a result of continuous training of farmers to adopt organic farming discussing with them the benefits of the organic farming practices as well as the disadvantages of the artificial chemicals which have negative impacts on the environment [
22].
Table 1 showed the statistics of the land which has been continued to be cultivated under organic farming in India.
According to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), it is clear that the area put under organic management has been growing every year (
Table 1). This has been enabled by training efforts for the farmers to adopt organic farming. Large chunks of land which was initially used in artificial agricultural practices have now been turned to organic farming.
Singh et al. [
23] had recorded the field experiment and determined that there was no serious pest attack and crop disease by organically grown crops in India. The findings of another study explained that the unit cost of production is lower in cotton and sugarcane cultivation. Meanwhile, for paddy and wheat, the production cost is lower in conventional farming. The cost of cultivation is determined by the success of agriculture [
23]. Most of the studies determined that organic farming is more profitable than conventional [
24]. However, farmers are reluctant to adopt organic farming. In addition, there is a need to gain more awareness and a clear insight into organic concepts to change the farmers’ reluctance to adopt organic farming [
24]. Another study in Andhra Pradesh explained that organic agriculture requires a lot of labors compared with conventional farms. In spite of this, the crops in organic farms having different planting and harvesting schedules which may distribute labor demand unequally. It could help the sustainable employment in organic farming [
25].
However, Reganold [
26] suggests that productivity is not only the main goal but also need to be focused on is the sustainability of agriculture in the long run. Soil fertility and biodiversity maintenance, environmental effects, farmers and their communities are equally important to reach the productivity goals [
26].
2.3. Farmers’ Suicides in India
In conventional farming, there is an urgent need to acquire chemical products such as chemical herbicides and fertilizers. Pavuluri [
27] mentioned that the result is that farmers buy chemical products with credits and loans from banks as well as other lenders. Most of the time, farmers are supposed to pay the loan within a period of time and in the event of a default in repaying. However, the farmers are answerable to these lenders. In relation to this, the farmers’ day-to-day lives become a struggle whereby they have to cope with debts and the lack of sustainable agricultural produces which would have been the case had they resulted to using organic farming mechanisms. Those farmers overwhelmed by these conditions result in suicide [
27]. According to Pavuluri, there is a need for organic farming but by contrast there is a rapid shift to conventional farming meaning that farmers are now practicing agriculture mainly for the financial benefits rather than for the betterment of health and the ecosystem [
27]. Mishra [
28] further specifies that the rough estimate of suicides in the agricultural sector in India since the year 2010 can be estimated at approximately 140,000 based on the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which is used as statistics in police records. Mishra additionally stated that NCRB data may be poor quality and inaccurate due to cases of underreporting and the need to cover up the shame or to prevent these cases from being criminal cases. Therefore, Mishra [
28] suggests that the number could actually be higher than the stated estimate.
On the same topic, Posani [
29] suggests that the main reason why farmers take their own lives is indebtedness and desperation. These main causes were found in all cases of farmers’ suicide but, they were just merely symptoms of the problem which is the distress that is growing in the agricultural sector in India. This indicates that there has been a gradual deterioration of the agricultural sector [
30]. Other noticeable factors are including high input prices, low profitability, and weak support systems. However, it has been noted that while comparing the suicide rates in different parts of the country, the rate of suicide is high in much more fertile regions as compared to those who live in arid areas where there are fewer resources. This is because the farmer has less ability to deal with shocking events which may include drastic climatic changes or natural calamities [
30]. It is also important to note that the rate of suicide may be gradually decreasing but the number of deaths caused by the suicide of farmers is still soaring. In 2016, the rate of suicide of farmers was projected to have decreased by 10%. This puts the figure at 11,370 as compared to 12,602 in 2015 [
31]. In Tamil Nadu, the rate of suicides has been dropping since 2014. In another way, the number was 895, 606, and 381 in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively. The decrease in rate has been reported in most major regions apart from Karnataka where there was a massive increase from 768 in 2014 to 1569 in 2015 and to 2079 in 2016. Herein, 2016 was the year that recorded the least number of suicides in the past decade [
32].
Farmers’ suicides are also known as an agrarian crisis. The number of farmers’ suicide has been increasing in India. Therefore, there is a need to identify these factors and minimize the number of suicides.
Figure 1 showed that the rate of farmers suicide increased by 2% between 2014 and 2015.
The reasons for the suicides of the farmers is the inability to pay debts taken from the local money-lenders and other institutions [
33]. Most farmers are said to drink pesticides to kill themselves. Over 300,000 farmers in India committed suicide between the years 1998–2018. About 70% of the Indian people directly or indirectly depends on agriculture. The percentage of farmers’ suicide stands at 11.2% of the total deaths in India.
Scholars and activists have offered a number of reasons as to the phenomenon of farmers’ suicides in India. These include high debt burdens, monsoon failure, public mental health, personal issues, family problems, and government policies.
Table 2 shows the reasons for farmers’ suicide in India.
Agricultural practices in India have declined at a soaring rate since 1990 [
34]. The symptoms of unprecedented in post-independence India and agrarian distress shows a high rate of farmers’ suicides in India. According to the official government report 2015, 296,438 farmers committed suicide in India from 1995 to 2014. However, information from the agriculturist shows that the number of farmers’ suicide is 10 times more than the government’s report. The National Crime Records Bureau recorded that in 2014, the number of farmers’ suicide in India was 5650. The number of farmers’ suicide in India was high in 2004 when 18,241 farmers died due to suicidal actions.
Historical records relating to high mortality rates, revolts and frustration among the Indian farmers, mostly the cash crop farmers, date to the 19th century. The high rate of tax payable to cash crop regardless of famine or drought in that particular year. In Tamil Nadu, the rate of farmers’ suicide increases in numbers in 2017.
Approximately 0.5 million farmers have committed suicide in India from 1995 to today. This number has been increasing each year with more cases reported to the Indian states which practice cash crop farming.
Table 3 showed the data of the farmers who have been reported to have committed suicide in India from 1995 to 2017. In 1995, the number of farmers’ suicide in India was 10,720 and it reached up to 17,130 in 2005. In 2017, the numbers stood at 18,098. This implies that the number of farmers’ suicides had increased to an unacceptable level (
Table 3).
The NCRB report [
35] indicates that the high number of farmers’ suicide have been reported at the Eastern part of Vidarbha which comprises Gondia, Chandrapur, Bhandara, and Nagpur in India. These areas are known for rice farming. Therefore, the cases of suicides are more in the areas where cash crops are grown.
2.4. Farmers’ Suicides in Tamil Nadu
In Tamil Nadu, agricultural activities are largely carried out. According to the National Crime Records Bureau [
35], suicide kills more people in the Tamil Nadu state compared to other forms such as cancer, hepatitis or even HIV/AIDS. The India council for medical research established that cases of farmers’ suicides are three times higher in Tamil Nadu than in all southern and western states. Additionally, the researchers have established that the large population of farmers’ suicide in the region range between the ages of 20–40 years. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also established that the leading causes of premature deaths in Tamil Nadu and other states of India is suicide [
35].
Figure 2 showed that the number of farm sector suicides from 2010 to 2015 in Tamil Nadu state. According to the Accidental Deaths and Suicide reports [
35], the number of farmers’ suicides decreased in 2013 but increased in the year 2014 and 2015 more than in previous years (
Figure 2).
In 2016 alone, about 25% of the total number of premature deaths were as a result of suicide. The largest number of these deaths were young people aged between 15 and 39 years. Furthermore, the research established that the largest number of victims in Tamil Nadu were farmers. Many farmers are found to commit suicide due to various reasons [
36]. First, as a result of their inability to pay debts to one of the leading reasons as to why farmers commit suicide in India. When there are natural calamities like famine and droughts, farmers undergo losses but still the money-lending institution wants their money back. This leads to suicide as they do not have any other source of finance to pay their debts. They feel that it is unnecessary to sell part of their land or look for other methods of paying the debts and end up committing suicide. Conventional farming needs more input cost than organic farming. For this reason, farmers depend on bank and money lenders for their cultivation process [
37].
Figure 3 showed that Tamil Nadu is in third place with the most indebted agricultural households leading farmers to endure stress. As we have seen, this has led to detrimental effects like the deaths of farmers due to agricultural distress.
2.5. Reducing Farmers’ Suicides by Organic Farming
In India, many agencies have appealed to farmers to embrace organic agriculture due to a large number of suicides. The growth of the market economy in India which doesn’t benefit all Indian farmers equally has contributed to increasing the rate of farmers’ suicide in India. These markets have been benefited only the large-scale farmers but the small-scale farmers are left with their products unsold or sold at losses. Due to continuous losses, the farmers commit suicide as they cannot cater to their basic needs for their families [
38].
Torres et al. [
39], concluded that the profitability of organic farming is higher than conventional farming for citrus. The premium price for organic products leads to a high sale price for farmers. These results confirm that organic farming is economically viable and can give guaranteed income through economic sustainability of the households of citrus farmers in Spain [
40].
According to Shiva et al. [
39], organic farming can reduce the cases of farmers’ suicide to a huge extent. Acquiring chemical fertilizers, insecticides and other chemicals is costly. However, embracing organic farming reduces these expenses as it does not involve these synthetic inputs. The farmers need to understand that organic farming makes more profit than others as they do not incur the expenses of purchasing synthetic inputs. Besides, the research has indicated that farmers borrow funds to purchase these synthetic inputs. When there are droughts, famines or poor markets, the farmers who had borrowed funds from the money lending institutions find it difficult to pay the funds due to losses. This contributes to suicide to many farmers. It is, therefore, important for the farmers in India and around the world to embrace the utilization of organic agriculture so as to reduce these cases of suicides [
39].
Another study from the consumer side explained that organic farming is a new method to avoid the costs which have been associated with conventional farming and it is considered to have ecology and environment benefits as a whole. Still, the benefits of organic farming are not well known, it will take more time and effort to make organic farming to reach in the center for farmers and consumers [
41].