NEW DELHI: A total of 10,546 people involved in the farming sector (comprising 4,633 farmers/cultivators and 5,913 agricultural labourers) died by suicide during 2024, accounting for 6.2% of total suicide victims (1,70,746) in the country, says the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The number of such suicides, however, declined by more than 2% in 2024 compared with 2023 when 10,786 people died by suicide, making it the second consecutive year of decline. In 2023, the number had fallen by more than 4% compared with 2022. State-wise figures show 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). According to the 2011 Census, agriculture employed about 26 crore people (nearly 55% of India’s workforce), of whom nearly 12 crore were cultivators and 14 crore were agricultural labourers. NCRB clarified the data depict only the profession of people who died by suicide and has no linkage whatsoever with the cause of suicide. At the same time, high numbers in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh coincide with regions where farmers primarily cultivate cash crops like cotton and sugarcane.Failure or low output of such crops pushes the distressed towards moneylenders to meet their need for cash, with some of them even taking the extreme step. An increasing footprint of crop insurance, affordable farm loans and income support schemescould be the reason for the marginal decline in suicide numbers.