Contents: Foreword. Preface. List of contributors. I. Farmers suicides: causes and impact: 1. Farmers suicide: dynamics and strategies prevention/Gyanmudra. 2. Farmers suicides: causes and cures/S. Vijaya Kumar and K.S. Bhat. 3. Farmers suicides in Andhra Pradesh/K. Radhakrishna Murthy. 4. Agrarian Distress: impact on women in Andhra Pradesh/B. Ratna Kumari. 5. Rural distress and farmers suicides: cumulative effect of Multiple factors/Aldas Janaiah. II. Farmers suicides: strategies of prevention: 6. Farmers suicides and the roots of Agrarian crisis/Ajay Dandekar and Shahaji Narvade. 7. Farmers suicides: causes and strategies/Akkineni Bhavani Prasad. 8. Farmers suicides: relief and rehabilitation measures for the victims' families/G. Sreedhar and K. Dasaratharamaiah. 9. Falling into poverty syndrome: a study of farmers/T. Prabhakar Reddy. Index.

"The book goes deep into the roots of the problem of farmers' suicide based on number of factors. Suicide has cumulative causation. It occurs due to various reasons and some time the circumstantial evidence leads to reach a conclusion but more often such inferences may go wrong. Understanding the processes and situations leading or contributing to a suicidal state and its consequent influence on the decision-making process is a key to understand suicide. It results from a complex interaction of psychological, social, cultural, financial and environmental factors.

Here, this book seeks to understand the suicide cases through various causative factors. As the investigation is more focused on farmer's suicides naturally fulcrum of the analysis is farm centered activities. But at the same time other qualitative factors imparting suicides is explained in clear detail.

The two major issues namely causes and consequences of suicide and strategies to overcome suicide are discussed in detail in the book. Different articles have highlighted the situations of different parts of the country.

This book will be of great help to the policy-makers and social scientist who are engaged in development work." (jacket)