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Some 5,579 Indian farmers died by suicide in 2020, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, told the Lok Sabha November 30, 2021.
The figures are according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), that has published reports on farmer suicides up to 2020. These reports are available on its website.
Tomar added that the Union government had received no report on farmers, especially in Madhya Pradesh, committing suicide due to unavailability of fertiliser.
Crop damage
Cyclonic storms / flash floods / floods / landslides / cloudburst, etc, had affected approximately five million hecatres of agricultural area during 2021, Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
Climate change impact
Yields of rainfed and irrigated rice, wheat and kharif maize were likely to be reduced under projected climate change scenarios in the absence of any adaptation measures, Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
Agricultural contingent plans had prepared for 650 districts to cope up with any climatic aberrations, Tomar said.
Farmer income
The average monthly income per agricultural household during agricultural year July 2018-June 2019 was highest in Meghalaya, followed by Punjab and Hayana, Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
These were the findings of a survey carried out by the National Statistical Office (NSO) as part its 77th round.
Pregnant women
Some 52.2 per cent pregnant women in the age group 15-49 years in India are estimated to be anaemic, according to the recently released National Family Health Survey-Vdata, Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the Rajya Sabha.
COVID-19 vaccination
Some 781 million beneficiaries have received at least one dose of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha.
She added that 1.01 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered since May 1, 2021, at government COVID-19 vaccination centres while only 40 million doses had been administered at private ones.
Zika cases
Some 231 cases of the Zika virus have been reported from three Indian states in 2021. These are Uttar Pradesh (147), Kerala (83) and Maharashtra (1). No deaths have occurred due to this virus, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha.
Pawar added that Uttar Pradesh’s 147 cases had been reported from the districts of Kanpur (139), Lucknow (6), Unnao (1) and Kannauj (1).
Economic recovery
India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have contracted by 7.3 per cent during FY 2020-21, according to the latest estimates released by the NSO.
This contraction reflected the unparalleled effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the containment measures that were taken to control the pandemic, Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state in the Union Ministry of Finance told the Rajya Sabha.