While 118 cases of suicide by farmers were reported from Maharashtra, in Andhra Pradesh 33 farmers ended their life due to various agriculture reasons, Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
In Karnataka, too, there was a case of suicide by a farmer in the current year, he added.
"Reasons of suicide by farmers, as reported by state governments are manifold, which inter-alia include indebtedness, crop failure, drought, socio-economic and personal," he said.
To a question on whether the government is contemplating to launch a scheme to prevent farmers suicide, he said, "in 2006, the government of India approved Rehabilitation Package for 31 identified districts across the country comprising Andhra Pradesh (16), Karnataka (6), Kerala (3) and Maharashtra (6)."
The programme included both immediate and medium-term measures to be implemented over a period of three years, he said, adding time limit for implementation of non-credit components of the package was extended by two years and implementation period of the package ended on September 30, 2011.
An amount of Rs 19,998.85 crore has been released under the package as on September end of last year, the minister said.
