869 farmer suicides in Jan-April: Oppn leader

MUMBAI: Leader of the opposition in the legislative council Ambadas Danve on Wednesday said that from January to April 2025, 869 farmers had died by suicide across Maharashtra. He blamed the government’s failure to ensure adequate prices, and crop losses due to natural calamities compounded by pending compensation as reasons for the farmers’ distress.

For decades, farmers in Maharashtra, particularly drought-prone Vidarbha, have been struggling with crop losses, mounting debt, lack of adequate minimum support prices, and the absence of accessible credit facilities. Every year, thousands of farmers choose death by suicide as the only way to end the vicious cycle of debt they are trapped in, and to free themselves from private money lenders.

“According to administrative reports prepared at the divisional level, from January to April 2025, a total of 869 farmers died by suicide across Maharashtra. For Marathwada, we have data only till March 2025, so after adding April’s figures, the total will cross 869,” said Danve.

He shared the following statistics. In Marathwada, 269 farmers died by suicide till March; in Amravati division (western Vidarbha), the number was 327 from January to April; in Nagpur division, 135 farmers took their lives during this period; in Nashik division, 106 farmers; and in Pune division, 32 farmers.

Danve said these reports had been prepared by the relief and rehabilitation department, at the divisional level. Stating that it presented a “shocking picture”, he remarked, “The main reason for the farmer suicides is the government’s failure to ensure adequate prices for their crops. Prices are so low that farmers are unable to recover even production costs, leaving them trapped in a loan cycle. Besides, many farmers were not compensated on time for the losses they suffered due to natural disasters in the last two years.”

According to government data, the number of farmer suicides in the first four months of 2025 is largely the same as it was last year. During the budget session earlier this year, while responding to a question in the legislative council, relief and rehabilitation minister Makrand Patil told the house that in 2024, a total of 2,706 farmers had died by suicide across Maharashtra. Of this, 1,267 farmers died by suicide from January to June 2024. Amaravati division topped the list, with 557 farmer suicides, followed by Marathwada with 430.

Ashish Jaiswal, minister of state for agriculture, said the state government had initiated various measures, which would help reduce the toll. “The Mahayuti government under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has started taking various measures to give financial relief to farmers. To prevent them from being caught in the loan trap of private lenders, Fadnavis has ordered banks to provide agricultural loans to farmers without checking their CIBIL score – an indicator of the creditworthiness of farmers. This will provide institutional loans to farmers and they will be saved from private lenders.”

Jaiswal added, “Also, the government today (Thursday) announced a first-come, first-served basis to secure the benefits of all schemes relating to farmers. This will put an end to the waiting list. Alongside, the government is setting aside ₹5,000 crore per year, from this year, for capital investment in farms.”

Meanwhile, at a meeting on preparations for the upcoming kharif season, Fadnavis said farmers must be offered bank loans, to save them from the clutches of private lenders. “If we look at the data on farmer suicides, we can see that they are more in districts where private money lenders are more active. As farmers did not get bank loans in these areas, they did not have any choice but to go to private money lenders.

“To save them from a debt trap, we will have to ensure availability of crop loans from financial institutions like banks. This is our responsibility,” said Fadnavis. He instructed all district collectors to make sure that banks disburse loans to farmers according to their targets in their respective districts,” he added.