The Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretariat has said that the present crisis in the farm sector is not a fallout of the August floods but a byproduct of the wrong policies of the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and present National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments at the Centre.

In a press release issued here on Wednesday, the CPI(M) called for joint efforts to study the crisis and ease the situation in the sector.

There were many who abandoned cultivation over fear that their landholdings would be taken over for implementation of the The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel report.

This resulted in a fall of not only farm production but also land prices.

It further deepened the crisis in the sector.

Another reason for farmers abandoning cultivation is constant raids by wild animals.

The District Collector’s report to the government regarding the recent suicides of farmers was correct, it said.

Spurt in numbers

It is a fact that there is a spurt in the population of wild animals and this is the reason they come out of wildlife sanctuaries.

Shortage of fodder and water caused them to raid farms. There should be some mechanism to control the population of wild animals and to restrict them to the sanctuaries, it said.