India is witnessing an increasing rate of farmers’ suicide, which has been attributed to indebtedness by most of the studies. Indebtedness can be attributed to multiple factors, including individual, household, community, climatic, institutional, and market-oriented factors. The majority of studies have related these factors with indebtedness in isolation, but the conflating effect of these factors has not been investigated. Moreover, it is observed that farmers follow different adaptation measures to deal with crop failure and socio-economic and climatic stressors, which also play a significant role in their well-being. However, the relationship of these adaptation measures toward indebtedness and farmers’ suicide was found to be missing in the existing literature, which would otherwise provide valuable information regarding how to deal with farmers’ suicide. Considering the compounding effect of these factors on farmers’ suicide, we evaluated and quantified the relationship of individual, community, climatic, credit, and market-oriented factors with adaptation and indebtedness, which were subsequently related to suicidal ideation of farmers. This complex relationship was estimated using structural equation modeling (SEM) by surveying 400 farmers across 15 villages in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. SEM results show that individual traits, i.e., age, experience, and illness of farmers; community-oriented factors, i.e., provision of lakes, wells, water tanks; credit factor, i.e., moneylenders; perception of climate change; and market factors are the primary factors contributing toward farmers’ suicidal ideation. Adaptation was found to play a vital role in reducing the indebtedness and suicidal thoughts of the farming community. Results emphasize that a combined and thorough understanding of all the factors is required before making any recommendations to the government or any other decision-making entity.

中文翻译：

---

了解农民的自杀意念：印度马哈拉施特拉邦的结构方程模型研究

印度的农民自杀率正在上升，大多数研究将其归因于债务。负债可归因于多种因素，包括个人、家庭、社区、气候、制度和市场导向因素。大多数研究将这些因素与债务孤立地联系起来，但尚未研究这些因素的合并效应。此外，据观察，农民采取不同的适应措施来应对作物歉收以及社会经济和气候压力因素，这些因素对他们的福祉也起着重要作用。然而，现有文献中发现这些适应措施与债务和农民自杀的关系缺失，否则将提供有关如何处理农民自杀的宝贵信息。考虑到这些因素对农民自杀的复合效应，我们评估并量化了个体、社区、气候、信用和市场导向因素与适应和负债的关系，这些因素随后与农民的自杀意念有关。通过对马哈拉施特拉邦 Vidarbha 和 Marathwada 地区 15 个村庄的 400 名农民进行调查，使用结构方程模型 (SEM) 估计了这种复杂的关系。SEM结果显示农民的个体特征，即年龄、经历和疾病；面向社区的因素，即提供湖泊、水井、水箱；信用因素，即放债人；对气候变化的看法；和市场因素是促成农民自杀意念的主要因素。发现适应在减少农业社区的债务和自杀念头方面起着至关重要的作用。结果强调，在向政府或任何其他决策实体提出任何建议之前，需要对所有因素进行综合和透彻的了解。