Business failures declined by 10.1 percent in the first quarter over a year ago as more farmers and retailers climbed out of the red, a report released Wednesday said. Dun & Bradstreet Corp., a business-information concern, said 15,211 businesses nationwide went under during the first three months of this year, compared with 16,924 in 1987. Joseph W. Duncan, Dun & Bradstreet's chief economist, said 75 percent of the improvement was due to a decline in failures in the agriculture and retailing sectors. First-quarter retailing failures slipped 17 percent, to 2,918 from 3,515, while agriculture failures plunged 53 percent, to 596 from 1,266. ``The strong levels of consumer demand that characterized the early years of the current economic expansion also resulted in a high level of entrepreneurial activity in retailing,'' Duncan said. He attributed the improvement in the agriculture sector to the introduction of Chapter 12 into the federal bankruptcy laws. Chapter 12 protects farmers from their creditors while allowing them to reorganize. Other large declines in business failures included: mining, down 53 percent; transportation and public utilities, down 13.2 percent; manufacturing, down 11.1 percent; and construction, down 9.8 percent, Dun & Bradstreet said. By region, the West-South-Central states _ Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana _ fared the best, with business failures down nearly 30 percent. But the South Atlantic states _ New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania _ had a 68 percent jump in failures. ``Until further data are available in 1988, it will be difficult to tell if the trend in New York and New Jersey is somehow linked to the October (stock market) crash,'' Duncan said.