Farmers under the aegis of We Farm, an organisation involved in the protection of farmers and environment in the Western Ghats, took out a symbolic funeral procession to the Collectorate here on Wednesday in protest against “anti-farmer policies” in the Union and State budgets.
One of their major demands is withdrawal of the decision of the State government to increase the existing fair value of land by 10%. “The fair price fixed for lands is the highest in Kerala,” said Joy Kannamchira, chairman of We Farm.
He said that vast stretches of farmland in the hill districts of the State had been rendered uncultivable for various reasons including straying of wild animals and natural disasters. Farmers were thus forced to give up cultivation of crops. Subsequently, 10,000 acres of land had turned into forests, he pointed out.
Mr. Joy said that land was easily available in the hill regions at the rate of ₹4.5 lakh an acre. At present the fair price fixed was ₹10 lakh for the same measure. If the price was hiked by 10%, it would be impossible for a common farmer to transfer property to another person.
Rail-fencing project
The State government has also been urged to expedite the rail-fencing project along forest boundaries to prevent wild animals from straying. Hundreds of families had been forced to move out of the hill regions following conflicts with wild animals, Mr. Joy said.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had proposed to hike land tax rate to the 2014 level, a 10% increase in fair value of land, and settling the 10-lakh-odd pending undervaluation cases since 1986.
However, Mr. Joy said the State budget had set aside only ₹20 crore for compensation to farmers when the loss to farmers on account of damage to agricultural crops and attack on domestic animals by wild animals was estimated at ₹1,000 crore every year. Only a meagre allocation had been made for farmers while ₹71 crore had been earmarked for environment protection, he pointed out.
