Just as political parties are bracing themselves up for the Assembly polls and are feverishly doing the groundwork, farmers who are fully conscious of the developments, are set to make their voices heard. This stems from the agrarian crisis plaguing the farmers who have seen even the prices of vegetables and fruits drop to a new low in the last few weeks in the Mysuru-Chamarajanagar belt.
Kurubur Shanthakumar, president, Sugarcane Cultivators’ Association, said an awareness drive will be created among the members of holding the political parties accountable for the agricultural crisis and extract promises and solutions from them.
“Though the elections are at least five months away, this is the only time the politicians will listen to us and we are determined to make our voices felt,” he said.
On top of farmers agenda is an announcement of loan waiver before the elections. “It should be for all crop loans availed from nationalised and public sector banks as also cooperative banks,” he said. Mr. Shanthakumar averred that farmers were in distress and debt.
At a time when crops were to be harvested, most farmers are without work as the government did not release water through the canals and restricted the cultivation of paddy owing to delayed rains this year.
“Sugarcane cultivation has dwindled over the last few years as the cost of cultivation is around Rs.3000 per acre while the procurement price varied between Rs.2500 to Rs.2600 per ton. Given the loss incurred in cultivation, farmers are abandoning sugarcane crop’’, said Mr.Shanthakumar.
Study tour
A seven member team of officials and farmers will tour Gujarat for three days later this month to study how a few sugar factories in the cooperative sector in that State are paying high procurement rates for the crops. Some of the factories are paying farmers up to ₹4500 per ton and hence the team will study the process and submit a report to the government, according to Mr.Shanthakumar who is also slated to join the study tour.
