”If you study the data from 1997 onwards, there has been a steady increase in the number of farm suicides, and it appears that from 2001, the increase has been of a higher order compared to 1997-2001,” Professor K Nagaraj, Madras Institute of Development Studies.

”The bank insisted we pay back the loan on the same day. We could have if they had bought our crop. With the money, we could either care for our crop or our children,”Wife of a Marathwada farmer who committed suicide.

”Farmers in Gujarat go to work whereas, farmers here (Maharashtra) just sit around and don't go to their farms. What can the government do in all this,” Union Textile Minister Shankar Singh Vaghela.