A potato farmer, who was in a financial crisis, allegedly committed suicide in Bardhaman district of West Bengal, taking the toll to three in a fortnight.
Ratan Shanr (35) had consumed pesticide at his home at Sassanga village in Khandagosh area of the district on March 18. He died at Burdwan Medical College Hospital on Friday morning, police said.
The victim’s brother Bansi said the farmer had mortgaged his wife’s ornaments to arrange for a private loan of Rs 60,000. But as the prices of potato remained very low, he was depressed and took the drastic step.
Khandagosh block development officer Santanu Das said he had received the news and was looking into the situation.
In the past fortnight, two other potato farmers had committed suicide at Bhatar and Mangolkote in the district as prices of the tuber remained very low.
Potato production in West Bengal was in excess of 110 lakh tonnes, up by around 15 per cent over the past year due to higher acreage and a conducive climate, the former president of West Bengal Cold Storage Association Ramapda Paul said.
State Agriculture Minister Purnendu Bose had told PTI recently that the government is keeping an eye on the situation arising out of surplus potato output in West Bengal which has left farmers worried.
The price of potato would not have crashed to Rs 150 a bag against the production cost of Rs 450, had demand from other States remained buoyant, he said.
The government has created a Rs 10 crore corpus for transport subsidy for exporting tuber by both ships and railway rakes besides, procuring it from farmers at Rs 5 a kg for direct retailing in 20-odd state-owned Safal stores in and around the city at Rs 7 per kg. PTI
