Two farmers committed suicide in every three hours in India during 2019, according to a reply given by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Tomar said as many as 5,957 farmers committed suicide in India in 2019 as compared to 5,763 in 2018.
At 2,680, Maharashtra accounted for nearly 45 per cent of all farmer suicides, followed by Karnataka at 1,331 farmer suicides in 2019.
Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest increase in farmer suicides in percentage terms. As compared to 365 farm-related suicides in 2018, it went up by 72 per cent to 628 in 2019. Farmer suicides increased by nearly 20 per cent in Maharashtra. In Telangana, it dropped by nearly half to 491 in 2019. Farm suicides in Madhya Pradesh came down to 142 in 2019 from 303 in 2018.