Fertilizer scarcity claims one more life in Karnataka

The scarcity of fertilizers in Karnataka has claimed one more life with a 45-year-old farmer ending his life by consuming poison in Harihar taluk in Davangere district in the state yesterday.

Police said the deceased farmer Ajjappa consumed poison while participating in a road blockade at Malebannur village in Harihar around noon on Wednesday to protest the delay in supplying fertilizers to the farmers.

Police and other protesting farmers realized that Ajjappa had consumed poison only after he collapsed near the venue of the demonstration and began frothing at the mouth. He was taken to a nearby health centre only to be immediately rushed to Davangere Government hospital in an ambulance when his condition began to deteriorate.

A team of doctors at Davangere Government hospital tried to revive Ajjappa, but in vain. When he did not respond to the medical treatment, the farmer was declared dead by the attending doctors.

Ajjappa’s death comes barely ten days after 33-year-old farmer Siddalingappa Churi was killed when police opened fire on a mob of farmers protesting against the scarcity of fertilizers in Haveri district of north Karnataka.

Ajjappa’s inconsolable wife said her husband was struggling for the last twenty days for a bag of fertilizers for his four acres of land on which he grew vegetables for a living. Frustrated over the continuing delay by the Government to provide fertilizers and seeds, Ajjappa had consumed poison, she said.

Farmers’ leader Kodihalli Chandrashekar said Ajjappa had lost hope of securing fertilizers and seeds for his crop after the Government began insisting on production of land records before distributing fertilizers.

Ajjappa is among the thousands of farmers in Karnataka who practice agriculture on gomal land for a living. “No land records are available for gomal land, which does not get transferred from the Government to the farmer”, Chandrashekar said.
The death of two farmers in a span of ten days has brought the nascent BJP Government in Karnataka under immense pressure particularly in view of the fact that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had taken oath of office in the name of farmers’ welfare.