A 62-year-old debt-ridden farmer committed suicide by consuming pesticide at Inkollu in Prakasam district on Monday.
With this, 22 farmers have committed suicide so far in the district this year due to the crisis in the agriculture sector, which saw even some of the relatively better off tobacco growers resorting to the extreme step. According to the police, Yedavalli Subba Rao, who is survived by his wife and three sons, was saddled with a debt of over Rs. 4 lakh. He was under pressure to clear Rs. 2 lakh immediately, which he had taken from private moneylenders.
Rao, who owned one acre, had taken three more acres on lease and had raised chilli and cotton crops this year. He lost all hopes of getting decent returns with the price of cotton dipping. Rao was also said to be an asthmatic.
He had incurred heavy losses after growing export-quality Bengal gram in 2013 in the wake of its price plummeting following imports from Australia, Canada and other countries flooding the domestic market.
