A farmer in Karnataka’s Raichur district is distributing his banana crop to the people in his village as it was simply not worth the effort of selling it in the market for a loss. Some of the fruit has also rotted.

Kottreshappa (45) is a farmer in Airani village in Ranebennur taluk of Haveri district. In September 2014, he decided to grow banana as the fruit would fetch a good price.

Then, a kg of banana would have fetched him between Rs 18 and 20. Spread across 10 acres, the crop has yielded 40 tonnes per acre, meaning that at 2014 prices, the total yield would have fetched him Rs 7.2 lakh.

However, by harvest time in January 2016, prices crashed to Rs 2 per kg.

And so, he is going around to schools and jathres in his village, and distributing bananas for free.

A banana plantation can yield three fruit harvests and this was Kottreshappa’s first one. He hopes that at least the next two yields will be better.

Haveri district has seen one of the highest number of farmers’ suicides in the state. Since April 2014, over 900 farmers in Karnataka have killed themselves. Mandya, Haveri and Tumakuru district have topped the state for farmers’ suicides.