WHILE writing out the receipt for Pandurang Kadam's onion crop on April 19, the trader did not realise that it would be used as forensic evidence. The next day Pandurang returned to the Lasalgaon market and set himself on fire. The town watched in shock as Pandurang burned in the yard where a thousand farmers' hopes are extinguished every day. In his pocket, they recovered the receipt.

SIX months ago, 65-year-old Kashinath Ravan Kolge killed himself by drinking pesticide. His wife Venubai Kolge says mounting debt drove him to suicide. "He had taken a loan to dig a borewell. But we did not get any water. We had no money left. The crops were yielding very little. It was a hopeless situation."

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Farmers in Haryana have been persuaded to give up growing a lucrative crop because of the harm it causes to the earth.

In the Banni region of Kutch, western Gujarat, there is a move to turn back the ecological clock.

Price support, not loans, can save Vidarbha farmers

Researcher prefer organic farming to chemicals and fertiliser