Berhampur: A farmer couple in Sundarapalli village under Dharakote block in Ganjam district consumed poison allegedly due to loan burden and crop loss following unseasonal rains.
While the wife, Laxmi Barad died on the spot, her husband Kabiraj Barad has been admitted to the MKCG Hospital here in critical condition.
Sources said Kabiraj was a sharecropper farmer and also worked as a daily labourer to eke out a living. However, all his crops got damaged in the recent unseasonal rains.
Harassed by crop loss, debt burden coupled with acute poverty, Kabiraj and his wife took the extreme step, family members alleged.
"We don't have our own land. We work as sharecroppers and daily laborers. All vegetable crops cultivated on the farm land were damaged due to rains. But I had no clue about the loans the couple had taken," said Narayan, father of Kabiraj.