Thaindian News

Wayanad (Kerala), Nov 14 (IANS) The Kerala government-appointed committee which visited the hilly Wayanad district for an on-the-spot study of the crisis plaguing the farmers, after four of them committed suicide in the last 10 days, Monday said the situation was indeed grave.

The three-member team led by Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar told reporters here after a meeting of farmers and people’s representatives that a detailed report would be submitted to the state government Tuesday.

“We have found out that the issue is serious and requires urgent government intervention. A detailed picture of the looming crisis would be submitted to the government for alerting them to take suitable steps,” said Jayakumar.

The state cabinet Wednesday asked Jayakumar to visit Wayanad after a farmer, Varghese, took his own life after his crops failed.

He was the third farmer to commit suicide in the last ten days. Soon after, another farmer also killed himself.

Meanwhile, Monday’s meeting witnessed unruly scenes after a Congress party leader tried to play down the crisis, saying all suicides should not be accounted as by farmers in distress.

The Wayanad district collector is believed to have submitted a report to the visiting team that of the four who committed suicide, three were farmers.

It took Jayakumar a long time to pacify the meeting after the Congress leader’s remark.

The immediate reason for the present crisis was a steep fall in the price of ginger which fell from Rs.3,000 a bag to Rs.500, while the price of banana dropped from Rs.40 a kg to Rs.22.

“The situation is really grave because most farmers rely on loans for agricultural activities and today the scene is that many of these farmers, seeing the good price of ginger, had gone and taken land on lease in nearby Coorg district of Karnataka and invested in ginger,” said a local farmer.

The state government has taken the situation seriously given the record of Wayanad, where some 250 farmers committed suicide between 2001-06.

The next cabinet meeting scheduled Wednesday is expected to come out with immediate steps asking the commercial banks to go slow on going ahead with recovery procedures against erring farmers and also provide some relief through a bailout package for the beleaguered farmers.