NEW DELHI: Maharashtra continues to face the challenge of dealing with rising cases of farmers’ suicide. It has reported 204 such suicides in the first four months of the year – which is nearly half of what the state had reported in the entire year in 2013.The Union agriculture ministry on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha of Maharashtra’s dubious record followed by Telangana, Karnataka and Gujarat.Though Maharashtra’s figures are available only till April, the number of farmers’ suicide in the state (204) is still higher than the collective figure of five other states (97) where such suicides were committed by farmers this year.Other states’ data are mostly updated till October, showing the Maharashtra’s figure till that month would certainly be much more as many more suicides had been reported from the state after April. The suicide figure for the state between May and October is, however, not available with the Centre.The ministry has arrived at the figures for Telangana, which was carved out from Andhra Pradesh, by taking into account the suicide that took place in the districts which fall under the new state. The ministry shared the figures in the Lower House of Parliament through its written response to a Parliament question.Though the government remained silent over the exact reasons which might have forced farmers to take such drastic steps, it indicated the possibility of “agriculture indebtedness” being the primary factor behind such suicides.The ministry, at the same time, put the onus on states to take measures to prevent such suicides as agriculture including agricultural indebtedness is a ‘state subject’.“The government of India supplements the efforts of states through appropriate policy measures and budgetary support”, said the ministry.It also enlisted a number of measures taken by the Centre for the benefit of farmers. Those measures include: enhancement in minimum support prices of agricultural commodities, increase in institutional credit flow to agriculture sector, post-harvest loan for six months to eliminate distress sale of agricultural produce by farmers, debt waiver/relief and interest subvention on crop loans.