A farmer killed himself in Madhya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district on Thursday morning, news agency ANI reported, the seventh such suicide in seven days in a region rocked by violent farmer protests over plummeting crop prices.
Narmada Prasad was a resident of Hoshangabad’s Babai village and was being pressurized by local moneylenders, ANI added. The details of his death couldn’t be immediately ascertained.
Madhya Pradesh was pitch forked under the national spotlight on June 6, when five farmers died in police firing during demonstrations to demand a loan waiver and better crop prices.
Since then, seven deaths have been reported from the state as angry farmers have torched vehicles and ransacked property. The government has struggled to contain the acute agricultural crisis, despite assurances from the chief minister and promises of a partial loan waiver.