HUBBALLI, MYSURU, HASSAN, KALABURAGI: Six farmers in debt and distress ended their lives in various districts of Karnataka as the wave of suicides showed no signs of ebbing on Saturday.
Three debt-ridden farmers committed suicide—two in Haveri district and one in Gadag and Haveri district on Saturday.
A farmer from Avaralli village in Afzalpur taluk, Kalaburagi district, too, ended his life because he could not repay a loan. Meanwhile, in Hassan district, another committed suicide because four borewells sunk in his farm failed to yield water.
In Chief Minister Siddaramiah’s home district, Mysuru, a 42 year-old farmer ended his life in Mantikoppalu, in Bettadpur police station limits in Periyapatna taluk. He swallowed poison but could not be saved by doctors at JSS hospital in Mysuru.
According to a complaint lodged by his brother-in-law, Thimmappa, he had tended to ginger on his four acre farm. When the crop reportedly got destroyed, he suffered losses, and therefore took the extreme step, according to police.
‘Farmers’ clubs can boost their morale’
In view of increasing cases of farmer suicides, Mr T.N. Prakash Kammaradi, chairperson, Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission, on Saturday suggested an integrated farming approach and dependence on multiple sources of finance to help overcome the current crisis.
He said though commodities such as dal, and vegetable including onions, fetch remunerative prices, only six per cent of the total farmers who ended their lives cultivated them. Instead of looking for factors which drove farmers to end their lives, the focus should be on prevention of suicides, and suggested that farmers should unite and market their produce instead of doing it single handed.
Farmers’ clubs, in association with NABARD at every gram panchayat, ought to be created with the support of scientists, agriculture officers, and bank officers to know the scope of various crops, their current rates and others, and grow crops accordingly. These clubs should also provide counselling for farmers in distress. Besides, every district should have Farmers Producers’ Organisations to provide financial literacy to farmers, Mr Prakash added.
He lamented that though the demand for ragi, BT rice, white jowar, and oil seeds were high the state witnessed a drastic reduction in area of cultivation of these crops during the last ten years, he said.
