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4 ‘Save your farmer, think of your children’: Despite high crop productivity and expected market-oriented returns, French farmers continue to suffer. Reuters
Devinder Sharma
Food & Agriculture Specialist
A few weeks ago, French farmers hung suicide dolls on trees outside parliament to draw attention to the devastation brought about by continuously sliding market prices. In a country which follows modern agricultural practices, it is disturbing to know that while three farmers on an average commit suicide every two days, growing indebtedness is resulting in the closure of at least 1,500 farms every year.
That such a grave tragedy should afflict the biggest farm producer in the European Union (EU), and ironically, which also happens to be the topmost recipient from the $100 billion agricultural subsidy kitty that Europe provides for every year, shows clearly how markets are tightening the noose, leaving the struggling farmers exasperated. “How can anyone want to be