New Delhi, April 22 (IANS): Nearly 40,000 people engaged in India's agriculture sector committed suicide in 2011-13, according to latest data available with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The data showed that 11,772 farmers committed suicide in 2013 due to crop loss or other farming related stress, while in 2012 the number was 13,754. In 2011, 14,027 farmers committed suicide, the NCRB data showed.

This year, unseasonal rains and hailstorm damaged 93.81 lakh hectare area under crops and affected lakhs of farmers all across the nation.

The Maharashtra government reported three cases of farmers' suicide during the period of January-March, while governments of Punjab, Karnataka, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh said there have been no such incidents in 2015.

Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajsthan, who hanged himself from a tree at Jantar Mantar in Delhi during the AAP's kisan rally on Wednesday, became the latest victim of the agrarian distress.