Mysuru: Karnataka State Farmers Association and Hasiru Sene staged protest against suicide of farmer Ninge Gowda (65) at Gandi circle, infront of Court on Friday.
Addressing the media, one of the protester said, Sugarcane farmer of Pandavapura taluk in Mandya district committed suicide on Thursday by setting his standing crop on fire and then jumping in. Ninge Gowda, a marginal farmer from Ganadahosur village, was upset over the crash in sugarcane prices and harassment from money lenders.  In Kalaburagi district, a debt-ridden farmer consumed poison on Wednesday night and died on Thursday, while two others tried to end their lives.

Ninge Gowda, who had grown sugarcane on his half-acre land, could not get a good price as the Pandavapura sugar factory starts crushing only by the end of July. He had nothing to fall back on to feed his wife, disabled son Erre Gowda (28) and his daughter-in-law, and had borrowed around Rs 1.6 lakh on interest, he said.

Now Central government is not looking towards the welfare of farmers and also the sugar factory owners at Mandya has to look after farmers who grow Sugarcanes. They should provide with good subsidies and government must take responsibilities, he added.

Ninge Gowda did not have money to pay wages to labourers for harvesting the standing crop. Distressed, he came to his sugarcane field in the morning, set it on fire and jumped in, according to the villagers. The fire spread to adjacent fields causing damage to the sugarcane crop in more than four acres. Seeing the flames, some farmers rushed to the fields only to find Ninge Gowda’s charred body, which was shifted to Pandavapura for post-mortem. Boramma, wife of Ninge Gowda, said that the money lender was pressurised her husband to repay the loan along with interest.

Members of Karnataka State Farmers Association Badagalapua Nagendra, Vidyasagar, Mahesh, Basavaraju and others were present.