Till August this year, 685 farmers committed suicide in Marathwada, highest in Agriculture Minister's district

The troubles of farmers in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra are not showing signs of decreasing. Due to bad harvest, pressure of loan repayment and poor financial condition, 685 farmers have committed suicide in the year 2023 alone. The surprising thing is that this figure is only till August 31, due to which the concern of the officials and the government has increased.

According to an official report, the highest number of deaths is from Beed district, where so far 186 farmers have died. Beed is the home district of Maharashtra's current Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde. Munde is part of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which had recently decided to join the CM Eknath Shinde-led government, rejecting Sharad Pawar's leadership. Munde got the responsibility of Agriculture Ministry in Shinde government just two weeks later.

Let us tell you that there are eight districts in this dry region of Central Maharashtra – Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Osmanabad, Hingoli and Latur. According to the report of the Divisional Commissioner's office here, 685 farmers committed suicide in Marathwada between January 1, 2023 and August 31, 2023. Of these, 294 sacrificed their lives during the monsoon months i.e. between June and August.

Marathwada region of Maharashtra is suffering from lack of rain this year also. There has been 20.7 percent less rainfall this monsoon season. The area has received 455.4 mm rainfall till September 11, which is much less than the average monsoon rainfall of 574.4 mm.

In Marathwada, maximum number of farmers sacrificed their lives in Beed. Apart from this, so far in 2023, 113 farmers have committed suicide in Osmanabad. The third number is from Nanded, where 110 farmers have sacrificed their lives. 95 farmers have committed suicide in Aurangabad, 58 in Parbhani, 51 in Latur, 50 in Jalna and 22 in Hingoli.