Debts claimed 25 farmers’ lives in 4 years
Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Although the state has set a mannequin by fixing ground value for rubber, coconut, paddy and Wayanadan espresso beans to be able to insulate farmers from the perils of market fluctuation, the state has witnessed as many as 25 farmer suicides since 2016. The farmer suicides as a consequence of debt and chapter have been one in 2015 and 5 in 2014 within the state, in response to the stats accessible with the National Crime Records Bureau.
According to a written reply submitted within the Assembly by Agriculture Minister V S SunilKumar, of the 25 farmer suicides in the course of the LDF authorities’s time period, 11 have been in Idukki and 10 in Wayanad adopted by Kannur with two and Kasaragod and Ernakulam by one every.
Of these, 12 took the acute step in 2019 within the aftermath of the mid-August floods of 2018. The minister mentioned that suicides have been the results of injury brought on by 2018-19 floods to properties and crops, failure to repay financial institution loans on time, and the following risk of restoration measures.
Stating that the state authorities has no proposal to plot schemes to guard the households of farmers who dedicated suicides, the minister mentioned the division has devised a slew of schemes, together with crop insurance coverage and advantages, for restoring the flood-hit agriculture sector.
P Indira Devi, agri-economist and former director of analysis, Kerala Agriculture University, mentioned: “Despite high banking density and literacy, non-banking institutions are playing a major role in providing farm loans in Kerala. A comprehensive study conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation in 2013 on the agriculture scenario in the state has revealed that 78 per cent of the agriculture households in Kerala are reported to be in debt while the average outstanding loan of each agriculture-household is Rs 2.13 lakh. Of this, 20 per cent of farm credit is from non-banking institutions. This was the last comprehensive study on farmer suicides held in Kerala.”
“In majority of the cases, farmers took the extreme step unable to withstand social pressure,” she mentioned, including there have been remoted cases like farmers making use of farm loans for non-agriculture functions. According to agriculture consultants, although lead banks present agriculture gold loans to their shoppers, 99% of gold mortgage beneficiaries are non-farmers.
Even among the mortgage sharks make use of agri-gold loans by pledging the gold they collected as surety and availing the mortgage meant for farmers, in nationalised banks to get the advantage of curiosity subvention and infuse the cash into the market at exorbitant rates of interest, they mentioned.
