Three more distressed farmers committed suicides on Wednesday.
Bishnu Madhi (48) of Bijadih village under Paikmal block in Bargarh district ended life by hanging himself. With this the suicide toll reached 20 in the district.
As per reports, Bishnu had grown paddy in 12 acres of land. But due to scanty rainfall, he faced huge crop loss and got mentally disturbed.
He committed suicide when his wife went out of the house for her routine works.
Sources added that Bishnu cut his body at several places before hanging himself.
Bishnu is survived by wife Banabasi (44) and a daughter. The daughter is also unable to maintain a good family life as she made second marriage recently after failure of the first one.
Meanwhile, Government officials rescued a farmer who was in deep stress for crop loss in the same Paikmal block. One Jagannath Dani (64) of Temri village was under severe depression due to crop loss. He even left taking food for last few days and was almost bed ridden.
On being informed, the BDO and Agriculture officials rushed to the village and assured help to Jagannath and his family. The officials also brought Jagannath to the hospital for treatment.
Another distressed farmer identified as Arjun Chalan of Chalangunda village in Umerkote in Nabarangpur district also committed suicide by consuming poison. He was also in deep mental stress for crop loss and debt burden.
In another case, a farmer identified as Niranjan Pradhan (36) of Ghodapada under Sadar police station limits in Baleswar district ended life by consuming poison due to debt burden after crop loss.
Besides his one acre land he had undertaken paddy cultivation as a sharecropper in about two acres of land. He had taken hand loan of Rs20,000 for the purpose.
However, the locals said that there was a family disturbance as he was not able to repay the hand loan. Unable bear the stress, he consumed poison and died while undergoing treatment in the District Headquarters Hospital.