This is significant because over the years, the dependence of an average agricultural household for its income has been increasing on wages from farming rather than crop production.
Cultivators too are distressed
While the share of such deaths among cultivators had been declining, the percentage share of suicides by cultivators increased marginally in 2024 to 43.93 per cent, up from 43.48 per cent in 2023. This slight rise comes after a consistent decline in their share of farm-sector suicides since 2021.
Maharashtra saw the highest suicides in the farm sector
Maharashtra saw the highest suicides in the farm sector with 3,824 deaths by suicides by farmers and agricultural labourers. Not only was this number the highest, the state contributed to 36.26 per cent of all deaths by suicide cases of those involved in agriculture. While the NCRB report does not mention the reasons behind these deaths in the farm sector, it must be noted that at least 20,37,651 hectares of cropped area was affected due to extreme weather events, including floods, in Maharashtra in the year 2024. This accounted for almost 50 per cent of at least 40,72,523 hectares cropped area affected due to extreme weather events in the country, revealed India’s interactive atlas on weather disasters.
The second-highest number of cases were recorded from Karnataka (2,971), followed by Madhya Pradesh (835), Andhra Pradesh (780), Tamil Nadu (503) and Chhattisgarh (486).
However, Karnataka saw the highest increase in number of suicides among all states — a 22.61 per cent rise, when compared with 2023. The second-highest increase was in Rajasthan (14 per cent), followed by Madhya Pradesh (7.46 per cent). Andhra Pradesh, while recording the fourth-highest number of cases, actually reported a decrease of 15.67 per cent from 2023.
Among Union Territories (UTs), Puducherry had not reported such cases between 2019 and 2022. However, the UT recorded 10 cases in 2023, a figure that increased to 33 farm-sector suicides in 2024 — all of them among farm labourers. This has been the steepest increase among all states and UTs, with suicides rising by 230 per cent, or more than threefold, within a year.
