Data show that the number of farm suicides in 2024 will be 10,546, a decrease of 2% from the previous year

New Delhi: A total of 10,546 people in the agriculture sector, including 4,633 farmers/cultivators and 5,913 agricultural workers, died by suicide in 2024, accounting for 6.2 per cent of the total suicide victims (1,70,746) in the country, the latest report from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) said. However, the number of such suicides fell by more than 2% in 2024 compared with 2023, when 10,786 people took their own lives, marking the second consecutive year of decline. In 2023, this number dropped by more than 4% from 2022. Maharashtra continues to report the highest number of such suicides (3,824), followed by Karnataka (2,971), Madhya Pradesh (835), Andhra Pradesh (780) and Tamil Nadu (503), state data showed. According to the 2011 Census, agriculture employs about 260 million people (nearly 55% of India’s workforce), of whom nearly 120 million are cultivators and 140 million are agricultural workers. NCRB clarified that the data only describes the occupation of the person who died by suicide and does not have any link with the cause of suicide. Meanwhile, the numbers are high in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where farmers mainly grow cash crops like cotton and sugarcane.Failure or low yields of such crops force distressed people to turn to moneylenders to meet their need for cash, with some even resorting to extreme measures. The continued expansion of crop insurance, affordable farm loans and income support programs may be responsible for the slight decline in suicides.