Bhubaneswar: A 50-year-old farmer in western Odisha’s Bolangir has died by suicide after a brown planthopper infestation destroyed large parts of his paddy crop, people aware of the matter said on Wednesday.

The farmer, who lived in Bolangir’s Puintala block, had grown paddy on 12 acres and borrowed from cooperative and private banks. “He bought pesticide from the local market after finding the brown planthopper insects in the field. But the pesticide didn’t prove to be effective,” his brother said.

He added that the family reached out to state agriculture officials for help but did not get any. “My brother was already stressed about the loan and when he found out that there would be almost no harvest this season, he killed himself,” the farmer’s brother said.

He was admitted to Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday and was being treated for Local Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Mukesh Mahaling alleged that though more than 300 hectares of paddy field in the district have been affected by the insects, the agriculture department has not taken any steps.

There are reports of brown planthopper attacks in the Ganjam, Balasore and Keonjhar districts too.

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