The plight of farmers plagued by the vagaries of weather exacerbated by climate change dominated the Kerala Assembly during Zero Hour on July 9.
The debate culminated in a walkout by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition legislators who sought to punish the government for allegedly lacking a credible climate-change mitigation plan, financial resources, or political will to provide immediate and long-term relief to lakhs of farmers laid low by recurrent droughts, floods, and wild animal raids.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the government should consider compulsory crop insurance and loan waivers for debt-ridden farmers to reduce the occurrence of farmer suicides. He said most faced confiscation of the small holdings they had put up as collateral for loans. Low CIBIL scores prevent farmers from taking out future loans to meet the contingencies of life, including children’s education and marriage.
Mr. Satheesan said the government’s paddy procurement scheme had failed dismally. SupplyCo owed banks that paid farmers hundreds of crores of rupees. The banks treated such remittances to farmers, made at SupplyCo’s instance, as personal loans.
“SupplyCo’s failure to redeem the mounting bank debt has prompted the creditors to label hard-pressed farmers as defaulters and non-performing assets for no fault of theirs”, he said.
‘Compensation too little’
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislator Kurukkoli Moideen, who served a notice for an adjournment debate on the agrarian crisis, accused Agriculture department officials of failing to quantify farmers’ losses accurately. “The compensation, if at all, is too little and much delayed”, he said.
Mr. Moideen said drought followed by heavy rains had brought Kerala’s agricultural production to a perilous low, driving up food inflation and intensifying the cost-of-living crisis. “Arable land is no more an asset but a liability for farmers”, he added.
Agriculture Minister P. Prasad said an unprecedented heatwave followed by extreme rainfall had wiped out crops in an estimated 60,000 acres of land, potentially pushing more than 50,000 farmers into penury.
He blamed the Centre for the delay in compensating farmers. “The Central government owed Kerala at least ₹1,000 crore for mitigating the agrarian distress”, he said.
Mr. Prasad said the upcoming Kerala Climate Resilient Agri-Value Chain Modernisation (KERA) project would ensure the State’s food and nutritional security.
The scheme emphasised creation of climate-change-resistant farming systems, increased participation of small farmers and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in agri-value chains and establishment of agri-supply chain and logistics infrastructure. The World Bank would extend ₹1,700 crore as a low-interest loan for the initiative.
Speaker A.N. Shamseer disallowed the adjournment notice.
