Kendrapada

Devastated over total crops loss during the recent floods, a 50-year-old farmer in Kendrapada district committed suicide on Friday.
The deceased, Nagamani Swain of Hatia village of Manikunda gram panchayat, was owner of an acre farmland, had also taken to tenant farming of paddy crops in two more acres from other landowners that was completely damaged in the recent floods.

To add to his woes, the flood-induced sand-casting of the field turned it unfit for cultivation of the rabi crop.

He had borrowed heavily from moneylenders to raise the kharif crop and his inability to repay the loans drove him to end his life. He took pesticides to commit suicide. He was rushed to the district headquarters hospital at Kendrapara where he died while undergoing treatment.

Had there been no flood my husband might have been able to repay the money by selling the paddy after the harvest. He committed suicide due to crop loss. Now, after the demise of our family head, I and my three children are groping in the dark, said Nagamani’s wife with tears rolling down her cheeks.
A high-level district official said the alleged suicide of the farmer is being inquired into. Measures are afoot to compensate his family members, he added.