Kerala Cabinet, meeting on Wednesday, will discuss the farmers’ suicides in Wayanad district of Kerala.
In a short span of a few weeks, three farmers had committed suicide in the district reportedly because of indebtedness.
Agriculture Minister K. P. Mohanan told The Hindu that he had directed the district Collector to hold a meeting of bankers, agriculture officers and others and collect data on indebtedness of farmers.
The Minister, who had assured the just concluded session of the Assembly that farmers’ suicides would not recur in the State, said that the problem was that none could predict who was going to commit suicide. Now, the effort would be to assess the financial position of farmers and collect information about their farming activities inside and outside the State.
Mr. Mohanan said that the government was wiling to help farmers facing problems if they approached the government. It was even willing to take over their farming activities and bear the losses, if the relief offered by the State Farmers' Debt Relief Commission was inadequate.
(It may be recalled that the farmers’ suicides which had peaked about ten years ago had come down in recent years.)
He said that little could be done about problems happening in the farming sector because of climate change and deterioration of the soil, especially in the case of paddy. As to problems faced by Keralites undertaking cultivation in neighbouring States, it was the responsibility of the respective States to help them.
He said that the agencies under the Agriculture Department were now buying vegetables at market price from farmers. They sold it through their outlets at a subsidised price in view of the spiralling prices of vegetables in the open market. The average subsidy being offered was Rs. 6 a kg.
