Bengaluru, Jul 8 (DHNS): Five farmers have committed suicide owing to debt burden and crop failure across the State in the last two days.

Thimmegowda (38) ended his life by consuming poison at Kuruvanka village in Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan district late on Monday night. He had grown sugar cane, banana and tomato on his five and half acres of land. Banana crop had withered away due to lack of water. Of the six borewells in his land, five had dried up. He had borrowed loans from various banks and they had issued notice to him demanding repayment, police said.

J Basappa (70), a farmer from Hurulihal village in Kudligi taluk of Ballari district committed suicide by consuming poison on Monday. He was worried over withering coconut trees and depleting water in the borewell on his land. He was shifted to Kudligi hospital where he died.

Guddappa Chalageri (35) ended his life by consuming poison at Aremallapura village in Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district on Tuesday. Taluk Raitha Sangha president Basavaraj Kadur said that Ningappa owned two acres and 20 guntas of land and had borrowed Rs 60,000 from a bank. He had also borrowed Rs two lakh from private persons.

He was worried over repayment of the loans as crops failed this year owing to water scarcity.

Sharanappa Bheemanagouda Basarakoda (30) committed suicide by consuming poison at Padekanur village of Muddebihal taluk in Vijayapura district. He had borrowed Rs one lakh from a bank and Rs three lakh from private persons. He had grown sugar cane on his four acres of land, but the crop failed due to non-availability of water. Three borewells sunk in his land did not yield any water, his wife Neelamma told Deccan Herald.

Meanwhile, an Andhra Pradesh-based farmer committed suicide following the burden of loan and crop loss due to rain at Machanur village in Shahapur taluk of Yadgir district on Tuesday evening.

Anjaneya Hanamanthu Bedar (39) ended his life by consuming poison at his field, police said.

He had taken a field on lease and the untimely rain had destroyed his paddy crop grown on 15 acres of land by taking a loan of Rs 5 lakh, it is learnt.

183 farmers end lives in 3 years

As many as 183 farmers including sugar cane growers have ended their lives in the State over the past three years, according to the details available with the Agriculture department.

In a written reply to a query by MLC B Ramakrishna (JD-S) in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, Sugar Minister H S Mahadev Prasad said that 33 cases of farmers’ suicide have been reported till now during 2015-16. The minister said that 77 farmers ended their lives in 2012-13, 58 in 2013-14 and 48 in 2014-15. In three years, Chikkamagluru topped the list with 27 farmers’ suicide cases, followed by 19 in Hassan district, and 13 in Mysuru district. The government has paid a compensation of
Rs one lakh in each of the cases, the minister said.