BEED (India), June 10 -- On a small farm in India's Maharashtra state, Mirabai Khindkar said the only thing her land grew was debt, after crops failed in drought and her husband killed himself.

Farmer suicides have a long history in India, where many are one crop failure away from disaster, but extreme weather caused by climate change is adding fresh pressure.

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 percent 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 cotto...