“Fortnight after Bargarh farmer suicide, Odisha bans 11 pesticide companies”, 15 November 2017

The government said of all the pesticide samples sent to laboratory for testing, those of 11 companies failed quality check.The Odisha government on Wednesday banned 11 pesticide companies from selling their products in the state. The decision came exactly two weeks after a debt-ridden farmer...committed suicide as spurious pesticides failed to protect his paddy crop from brown planthoppers.

Odisha agriculture secretary...said of all the pesticide samples sent to laboratory for testing, those of 11 companies failed quality check. “We have issued a no-sale and show-cause notice to them. Action will be taken as per the Insecticides Act,” added Garg. Union minister of state for agriculture...who visited areas...affected by brown planthoppers...said the pesticides many farmers had used actually helped proliferate the brown planthoppers.

Meanwhile, another farmer committed suicide allegedly due to crop loss in a pest attack. Radhakant Suna...three days after he consumed poison. Suna’s family members said he had cultivated paddy in over four acres and pests destroyed more than half of it. Suna is the fifth Odisha farmer driven to suicide this year by a pest attack.