K. Jayakumar, Additional Chief Secretary, said here on Monday that there were various factors that had led to the current crisis gripping the farming community in Wayanad and it was highly complex .
Talking to mediapersons after a detailed discussion with people's representatives, top officials, representatives of the political parties and farmers' organisations at the Collectorate conference hall here, Mr. Jayakumar said the agrarian society in the district was highly vulnerable to various factors. Mr. Jayakumar said he would bring the issues affecting the farming community to the attention of the government. The report would be submitted on Wednesday, he added.
The team comprising P. Indira Devi, Professor, Department of Agriculture Economics, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy; and P.C. Alex , Professor, Department of Medicine, Veterinary College, Pookode; visited the district to study the recent farmers' suicide. It has been reported that four farmers allegedly committed suicide within a fortnight.
Earlier, the farmers and their representatives raised their major concerns before the team at a meeting presided by P.K. Jayalakshmi, Minister for Youth Affairs.
They apprised the team about issues such as dearth of credit flow from banks, sharp fall in the prices agriculture produce, revenue recovery measures by banking and non-banking financial institutions and inadequate government agencies to procure agriculture produce at a remunerative price.
C.K. Saseendran, secretary, Communist party of India (Marxist ) said financial institutions, including cooperative banks and scheduled commercial banks, should increase credit flow. These institutions were adopting a negative stance towards farmers' needs and not providing loans .Hence, farmers were forced to take loans from private financial institutions at a higher rate of interest, he said. The CPI(M) leader said the government should provide compensation of Rs. 2 lakh to the families of the farmers' who had ended their lives owing to financial distress.
A comprehensive study was needed to reveal the complex issues of farmerst, P. Sadanandan, district president of Bharatiya Janata Party, said. Many government projects were yet reach the grassroots level owing to alleged laxity on the part of bureaucrats, he added.
Market intervention by government agencies such as NAFED was the need of the hour to procure the agricultural produce by providing a minimum support price to farmers, K.J. Devassia, district president, Kerala Congress (Mani), said.
Vijayan Cherukara of the Communist Party of India (CPI) said micro-financing organisations of self-help groups charged interest rate of 22 to 65 per cent on loans and many marginal farmers were at their mercy. The banking activities of such organisations should be controlled, he added.
A remark made by P.V. Balachandran, president, District Congress Committee, on farmers' suicide triggered protest. He said all suicide cases could not be treated as farmers' suicides without a detailed study .
The other major issues such as the need to channelize the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to the agriculture sector, revenue recovery measures initiated by financial and non-banking financial institutions of the government by using SARFAESI Act , the increasing man-animal conflict and issues related to the dairy sector were raised .
District Collector K. Gopalakrishna Bhatt and other top officials were present.