22 Telangana Farmers Commit Suicide In Just 3 Months 

Khammam: At a time when the Telangana government is boasting of bountiful crops due to abundant rainfall, an astonishing number of 22 farmers committed suicide in Khammam and Bhadadri Kothagudem districts in just three months. All of them were small and marginal farmers.

The reason behind the suicides was crash of prices. It may be recalled that the farmers in the state had cultivated cotton on a large scale assuming that they would fetch a good price in the market. However, the price of cotton plummeted all of a sudden. The sudden drop of price prompted farmers to cultivate chilli crop.

When heavy produce of chilli flooded markets in May this year, the state marketing department failed to monitor the situation. The chilli price fell from Rs 14,000 per quintal to Rs 4,000. Most of farmers are illiterate and borrowed money from private money lenders who charge five to 10 percent interest. With the prices dropping sharply, some of the farmers resorted to distress sale. This situation worsened as their debts to money lenders soared forcing them to resort to suicide. A total of 12 farmers in Khammam and 10 farmers in Bhadadri Kothagudem districts committed suicide in the past three months.

During this time, farmers had resorted to large scale protests in Telangana and adjoining state of Andhra Pradesh demanding fair price to their yield.