Vidarbha reported 2,009 farmers suicides in 2025: Kishor Tiwari

Mumbai: The agrarian-distressed districts of Vidarbha region in Maharashtra have reported 2,009 suicides by farmers in 2025 causing immense cause of concern, said veteran farmers’ leader and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) founder-president Kishor Tiwari.

In 2025, West Vidarbha districts of Yavatmal district recorded a record 446 suicides by farmers, followed by Amravati (396), Akola (388), Buldhana (343) and Washim (212) in West Vidarbha and East Vidarbha district of Wardha reported 224.

According to Tiwari, who has brought the issue of agrarian distress and farmers’ suicides of Vidarbha to global attention over decades, alleged that the BJP government at the Centre and State, the administrative machinery, and all political parties have remained silent.

“All political parties showered promises, but the serious issue of farmer suicides vanished into thin air,” said Tiwari, an activist who has been continuously working on the serious issue of farmer suicides and the agricultural crisis for the past 30 years, in a statement on Saturday.

In West Vidarbha, cotton is cultivated in 45 per cent of the area, soybean in 40 percent, and various pulses and sorghum in the remaining area.

“Last year, from 3 June-12 November 12, 2025, continuous rains wreaked havoc. The government provided compensation twice, but this did not alleviate the agricultural crisis,” he said.

According to Tiwari, the main reasons for this are only 50 percent disbursement of crop loans through banks, exploitation by moneylenders and microfinance self-help groups, the doubling of cultivation costs leading to an uncontrolled debt burden, complete soybean crop failure, only 40 percent of the cotton crop surviving where as the government's assistance was meager, further exacerbating the agricultural crisis.

“Many of these suicides involve young farmers and tenant farmers who do not have land ownership documents (7/12 extract), and therefore, these suicides are not officially recorded by the government. The number of tenant farmers, who cultivate land on lease, is as high as 50 percent in every village,” Tiwari alleged.

“They do not receive government crop loans or compensation for crop losses. Moreover, they are obligated to pay the land rent even if the crop fails. This has led to a significant increase in suicides among farmers without land ownership documents this year, as they are heavily indebted to private moneylenders, microfinance companies, and cooperative credit societies run by political leaders in villages. The government, the administrative machinery, and all political parties are unwilling to address this serious issue,” said Tiwari.

According to him, if the government does not implement measures such as improving credit availability, improving seed quality, changing cropping patterns, reducing cultivation costs by 50 percent, and declaring a state bonus on minimum support prices, the agricultural crisis and farmer suicides will increase dramatically in 2026.