Koleghari, June. 30(AP): India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, facing a dramatic rise in suicides among debt-burdened farmers, said on Friday that the government plans to soon unveil measures to help those struggling with crop failure.

Several farmers in an impoverished part of Maharashtra broke down and sobbed as they told the visiting Prime Minister about their lives.

``No one can repay loans when we don't have a good crop to sell,'' said Nathuram Sonve, a farmer desperately worried about repaying a 50,000-rupee (US$1,100; euro900) loan. ``The government must forgive the loans we have taken.''

Farm activists have asked the government to take such steps as building roads, water tanks and irrigation canals to help farmers in northern Maharashtra, where they say about 600 farmers have committed suicide since last June.

Singh, touring farms in the vicinity, told farmers that irrigation networks would be part of a package planned for the area.

``The government is working toward a solution. We are aware of the huge problem of debt,'' Singh told them. ``We will soon announce a package for farmers, and address issues like irrigation facilities.''

But Singh's visit comes too late for people like Prakash Pawar, who said his father swallowed insecticide and died last month after being wracked with worry about repaying a loan of 37,000 rupees (US$820; euro685) to a government bank.

``I wish the Prime Minister visited before my father died,'' said the 26-year-old Pawar, who said he inherited barren, brown land that has failed to yield an adequate cotton crop for the past four years _ not to mention the bill for his father's debts.

India's agriculture is largely dependent on seasonal monsoon rains, but erratic rainfall and water shortages over the past five years have caused thousands of debt-burdened farmers to take their lives in Maharashtra and the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Also, farmers say prices for electricity, fertilizer and loans have been rising faster than crop prices, leaving them trapped in a vicious debt cycle.

``The government must protect farmers till they become self-reliant and get good yields from their land,'' said farm activist Vijay Jawandhia.