'Farmer suicides complicated issue, formal finance key'

Cautioning against taking farmer suicides "lightly", Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said small and marginal farmers across the country should have access to formal financing.

Speaking within days of a farmer committing suicide at a public rally in Delhi, Rajan said one should neither take it "lightly" nor offer an easy explanation as these are "complicated matters".

He also said that lack of formal financing is bigger problem than excessive burden of informal financing.

"The need of the hour is to expand formal institutions to every corner of country. In the last few days, we have seen the tragic picture of farmer suicides...(these) are complicated matters. There is no easy explanation to why somebody takes ultimate step.

"One should neither take it lightly nor offer too easy an explanation. It needs to be studied," Rajan said in Chandigarh on Friday while addressing a function.

Following the suicide by Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan, in full public view in Delhi, the issue of farmers ending their lives has come to the centrestage.

"...it is lack of formal financing rather than the excessive burden of informal financing which is the problem. So can we move formal financing to every area of the country," Rajan said, adding that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was one of the initiatives aimed at providing finance to needy ones.

The RBI governor further laid emphasis on providing formal finance to small and marginal farmers who really do not have access to it. "We need to look at whether we have right institutions. Whether we have right incentive in the system," he further said.