New Delhi: Dismissing suggestions that suicides by farmers in some parts of the country were linked to low returns from grain cultivation, the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today (Oct 28, 2004) said the unfortunate incidents mainly took place in cotton growing areas.

"If you look at such incidents which have taken place in states like Punjab, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, it is clear that these have been due to failure of cotton crop (kapas)", Pawar said on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.

He said it was unfortunate that expensive and spurious insecticides and seeds had been sold to some gullible farmers and this had taken its toll on them.

Either the kapas crop failed or it was sold at throw-away prices due to its quality leading to huge losses for the farmers who in despair took the extreme step, he added.

The Minister said a New Seeds Bill would be introduced in Parliament shortly to ensure availability of quality seeds to farmers.