Water shortages and climate change are driving crop failures and debt in India’s agriculture sector, which employs 45 per cent of the population
Dwindling yields due to water shortages, floods, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall, coupled with crippling debt, have taken a heavy toll on a sector that employs 45 per cent of India’s 1.4 billion people.
Mirabhai’s husband Amol was left with debts to loan sharks worth hundreds of times their farm’s annual income after the three-acre (one-hectare) soybean, millet and cotton plot withered in the scorching heat.
He swallowed poison last year.
“When he was in the hospital, I prayed to all the gods to save him,” Mirabai said, her voice breaking.
