The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) opposition walked out of the Kerala Legislative Assembly (KLA), accusing the government of pushing rubber and paddy farmers into a debt trap and remaining apathetic to the existential crisis in the State’s traditional agriculture sector.
Seeking the leave of the House to introduce an adjournment motion to debate the subject, Congress legislator Sunny Joseph said the High Court had set October 24 as the deadline for the government to compensate paddy farmers.
“Such was their need in the face of government’s apathy that farmers had to seek judicial intervention to get compensated,” he said.
Mr. Joseph said actor Jayasurya was right to criticise the government for not paying for the paddy procured from farmers in Palakkad and Kuttanad.
Mr. Joseph noted that pro-government troll farms hounded Mr. Jayasurya for speaking the truth. “The cash crop sector in Kerala had crashed. The low price of rubber impoverished small-scale farmers. Rubber and spice cultivation was no longer an economically viable option in Kerala,” he said.
Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan said banks refused to honour paddy receipt sheets submitted by farmers for payment because the government refused to honour their debt. The treasury was cash-strapped and the Kerala State Farmers’ Debt Relief Commission merely remained on paper, he alleged.
The banks, he claimed, also deluged the impoverished farmers with debt recovery notices for defaulting mortgage payments on agriculture loans.
“The CIBIL credit score of farmers has plummeted. Lakhs of rural families relying solely on agriculture for a living could not raise even personal bank loans for marriage or the study of their children. They were forced to turn to loan sharks. If the government does not address the situation, there might be an uptick in farmer suicides,” Mr. Satheesan said.
He said Idukki and Wayanad packages for rejuvenating the agriculture sector remained promises. He dared the government to hike the minimum price of rubber to ₹250 per kg.
Agriculture Minister P. Prasad said the opposition was strangely silent about the wrong policies of the Central government that have precipitated the myriad woes plaguing Kerala’s agriculture sector. For one, the ruling front has nothing to say about the Competition Commission’s finding that unfair trade practices by tyre manufacturing conglomerates had disadvantaged rubber farmers, he said. Some of the tyre oligarchs tied to pro-Congress newspapers have refused compensation for small-scale farmers and moved the Supreme Court, he added.
Mr. Prasad also said the UDF was silent about the Centre’s decision to slash the import duty on rubber compound. He said the government had compensated paddy farmers, though there was some delay in payment. He requested the opposition shed politics and join forces to salvage the State’s farming sector.
Speaker A. N. Shamsheer denied the UDF motion.
