Distress main reason for suicides
Nearly 14,000 tobacco farmers in AP were facing heavy debts
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-24 06:57 GMT
Rajahmundry: Farmer Simhadri Venkateswara Rao, 49, who ended his life in West Godavari district, explained in his letter the reasons for the tobacco farmers; distress.
He said that nearly 14,000 tobacco farmers in AP were facing heavy debts. He complained that the Tobacco Board had unilaterally reduced the quantum of tobacco yield to 25 quintals for a baron (five acres) for 2015-16 against 44 quintals per baron earlier. He said this resulted in bankers reducing the quantum of loan to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 5 lakh and more per baron earlier.
This added to the misery of tobacco farmers as they were not sufficient loans to cultivate the crop and were unable to clear the arrears. Rao volunteered to give up his licence to cultivate tobacco and had demanded compensation for Rs 9 lakh per baron. He had borrowed Rs 18 lakh from Bank of Baroda and cultivated tobacco on 33 acres of leased land at Devarapalli in West Godavari. Neither the Centre nor the state government were serious about the letter purportedly written by the farmer and this resulted in the farmer committing suicide.