Farmers' suicides on agrarian reasons drop 49pc last year

The number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian reasons almost halved to 459 in 2013 and maximum incidents were reported in Maharashtra, Parliament was informed today.
The number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian reasons as reported by state governments stood at 901 during 2012.
"Government is aware of incidents of farmers' suicide in different parts of the country. As per report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 11,772 suicides were committed during 2013 by person self-employed in farming/agriculture.
"During the same year, the number of suicides committed by farmers due to agrarian reasons as reported by States/Union Territories was 459," Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Kumar Balyan said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

The minister noted that a declining trend has been noticed in recent years in the number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian or other reasons.
Out of 459 suicides in 2013 due to agrarian reasons, 407 cases were reported in Maharashtra, followed by Andhra Pradesh (40 cases).

In a separate reply, Balyan said Maharashtra government has not reported any specific incidence of farmer suicide so far in the state on account of unseasonal rains, hailstorms etc that occurred during Rabi 2013-14.
The state government submitted a memorandum seeking financial package in the wake of hailstorm that happened during February-March 2014.

Based on the report/assessment of the
Inter-Ministerial Central Teams that visited the state, the Centre approved Rs 856.06 crore from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to Maharashtra for managing the calamity.