Kerala   

Long-term strategy needed to tackle agrarian crisis

Palakkad is experiencing sweeping development where the secondary and tertiary sectors far outpace the primary sector. This is normal in the stride of development, but it should not be at the cost of the basic sector.

The Government has to formulate a long-term strategy to tackle the agrarian crisis in Palakkad district. Nearly 40 cases of suicide by farmers have been reported from the district mainly due to crop failures and mounting debts.

Palakkad accounts for nearly 39 per cent of the total paddy produced in the State. However, absence of proper policies to ensure stable and just prices to farmers has resulted in lopsided development. Large acreage of paddy fields remains uncultivated and many farmers have abandoned paddy cultivation.

The cost of cultivation is the highest in Kerala, and more so in Palakkad. Crop failures, poor procurement facilities, absence of irrigation facilities and insufficient marketing arrangements have worsened the situation.

What is required now is not a broad planning for the State, but a new genre of approach with accent on local specific.

The burning issues are timely procurement of farm products and just price. The average cost of cultivation of paddy here is around Rs.8 a kg, and the present price is only Rs.8.50 a kg. To make farming a gainful avocation, the procurement prices should be raised to Rs.10 a kg. Though the productivity in the district is satisfactorily high, gross production is shrinking.

Though, of late, State agencies have stepped in to accelerate procurement measures, brisk activity is yet to commence.

Bad economics

Following the rise in cases of suicide by farmers, the Union and State Governments intervened and announced loan waiver. Of course, this cannot be underestimated as a short-term remedy. But, it may be economically unviable to perpetuate the writing-off of debts to the neglect of broad agricultural reforms. If the farmers are not promised stable income, the debt burden will increase. That is bad economics and also bad policy.

Now the 11th Plan is on the anvil and the State authorities are busy discussing it. It is at this point the hard realities of Palakkad need to be raised at the proper forum.

Economist

P.A. Vasudevan Economist

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