JOIN USOdisha has seen 3602 farmers’ suicide in the fifteen year period between 1999 and 2013, the state government has said. The figure includes 474 women.
Quoting the national crime record bureau(NCRB), agriculture minister Pradip Maharathi told the state assembly that 2004 recorded the maximum farmer suicide of 370, including 80 women, while it fell to 144 in 2011.
The minister asserted that the suicides were due to reasons other than crop loss. “The state government investigates each death after receiving the complaint. It was found that none of those deaths were agriculture related,” he said.
The minister listed out measures the state government has been taking to prevent farm suicides including measures to improve irrigation, adopting modern technology to enhance production and giving crop loans to farmers.