Moratorium sought on agricultural loans

With the State government’s decision to declare nine districts, including Kozhikode, as drought-hit, a number of farmers’ organisations have come up with a demand that a moratorium on repayment of agricultural loans availed by financially backward farmers from various banks be declared.

Upland farmers are mostly seeking temporary relief from the government, claiming that production has witnessed a steep fall coupled with low market price.

Farmers’ organisations from Perambra, which is one of the prominent agriculture belts in the district, have also sought government intervention to stop revenue recovery actions by bankers against defaulters of agricultural loans during the drought season. A meeting recently convened by the farmers’ wing of the Janata Dal (United) drew the attention of the Agriculture Department to the worst-hit farming sector in the area, where farmers were found struggling to meet the cost of production with the reducing yield.

Leaders of Indian Farmers Movement (Infarm) and Malayora Karshaka Action Committee said the encroachment of wild animals into farm fields too had increased with the seasonal change, compelling farmers to seek government aid. Hundreds of farmers living on the fringe areas of the Malabar Wild Life Sanctuary recently lost their crops in the unexpected attack of wild elephants, and their losses should be compensated with a suitable relief package or moratorium, they said.

Evening dharna on April 9

Karshaka Congress leaders said they would stage an evening dharna at Perambra on April 9 with a call to address farmers’ turmoil in farming near forest areas. They also alleged that the Forest Department squads who had failed to mitigate the crisis had been going ahead with revengeful legal actions against farmers to suppress protests.

We Farm, an organisation working among settler farmers and the Janadhipathya Karshaka Union, the farmers’ wing of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, have also called for declaring a moratorium on agricultural loans in the wake of the looming drought.

Jijo Thomas and K. Johnson, leaders of the organisations, said the worst-hit were rubber growers and coconut farmers. The yield from the two fields was declining by the day, and that farmers would not be able to survive the season without government aid, they pointed out.