How counselling is helping farmers battle depression, avoid suicide

That gap is exactly what a mental health initiative from Sahyadri Farms, a farmer-producer company (FPC) based in Nashik and the Institute for Psychological Health (IPH) in Pune, is now trying to close.

A crisis hiding in plain sight

Maharashtra has for years recording farmer suicide rates higher than the national average, driven by a familiar cycle of climate shocks, crashing prices, export bans, and mounting debt. Dilip Patade, who grows onions, grapes, and tomatoes in Vilwandi village in Dindori taluka, has lived through several of these shocks firsthand – flooding, price collapses, and abrupt export bans that wiped out a season’s income overnight.

“Reviving after that becomes really difficult,” he said. “Some farmers do recover. Others fall into a debt trap, and often, that ends in suicide.”

Patade said earlier generations of farmers rarely had access to psychological support, and many did not even know it existed as an option. “Hardly anyone told them that these depressing thoughts could actually be addressed,” he said.

From an idea to a video series

The push to change began with a conversation between Vilas Shinde, Chairman and Managing Director of Sahyadri Farms, and Dr Anand Nadkarni, founder of IPH.

“In agriculture, market prices, climate conditions, yield, pest attacks, and government policy keep farmers in a state of sustained uncertainty,” Shinde told The Indian Express. “In my experience, this has been leading to depression, and eventually farmer suicides, and I always thought something needed to be done about these distressing thoughts.”

The conversation with Nadkarni turned into a plan of action. In 2022, Sahyadri Farms and IPH launched ‘Karta Shetkari’ – a free 42-video YouTube series in which Dr Nadkarni and filmmaker Rajkumar Tangade walk farmers through psychological resilience, stress management, and problem-solving, alongside practical guidance on entrepreneurship.

Taking it offline

The videos reached farmers, but not deeply enough, according to Pramod Rajebhosale, who heads the Incubation Centre for Horticulture FPC at Sahyadri Farms. “We found the online videos weren’t effectively reaching farmers,” he said. “So we launched a three-day residential programme at our Nashik centre, once a month.”

Each batch takes in 35 to 40 farmers across the state, including women, who register over the phone. Started roughly a year and a half ago, the programme has already trained around 500 farmers. Inside, a trained counsellor uses case studies, games, and group activities to teach farmers how to face adversity, build a resilient entrepreneurial mindset, and accept what is beyond their control.

“The sessions were free at first, but Sahyadri Farms now charges a nominal Rs 500 after noticing the free slots were being misused by some participants who had no real intention of attending,” Rajebhosale said.

For Purkar, the residential module changed how she copes with setbacks. “It helped change my mindset by developing a positive approach even in adversity,” she said. “We learnt not to lose hope.” She also believes women farmers, who juggle both fieldwork and household responsibilities, stand to gain the most from such training, reaching them directly.

Patade credits the programme with more than just a mindset shift – it pushed him toward a second income stream. “We were taught to move towards decision-making with a calm mind, plan economically, and think on the lines that ‘this too shall pass,’” he said. Through the programme, he also learned about agripreneurship and has since started an agri-tourism centre that now helps cushion the blow of farm losses.

Taking the conversation to a public stage

The programme’s reach expanded further in December 2025. Dr Suvarna Bobade, a senior counsellor with IPH, Pune, said the organisation’s involvement began after the Covid-19 pandemic, when IPH visited Sahyadri Farms in Nashik to assess farmers’ mental health needs.

That relationship deepened at the Kisan 2025 exhibition in Moshi, where IPH set up a public counselling stall for the first time. “Farmers opened up about successive crop failures and their fears for their family’s future,” Bobade said. “Some spoke about their struggles with alcohol addiction and its impact on their families.” The services at the stall were offered free of cost, and farmers have continued reaching out to IPH through social media for counselling even after the event ended.

What comes next

Sahyadri Farms is now building a team of trainers so that other institutes can run similar residential programmes across the state, and is working to translate the video series into other Indian languages to widen its reach beyond Maharashtra.

Sustaining the effort, however, needs money. Bobade points out that running a counselling stall involves far more than just showing up – doctors and counsellors need to be arranged, pamphlets printed, and audio-visual equipment rented for group activities. “Being an NGO, funding is crucial, and CSR support would help us reach farmers far more effectively,” she said.