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Experiment with high-value farming: Swaminathan

REACHING OUT: Farmers from Peermade taluk submit their complaints to M.S. Swaminathan during an interactive session of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee at Vandiperiyar on Sunday.

VANDIPERIYAR: She raises cardamom, pepper, coffee, ginger, jasmine and what not. “I work hard on my land but there is nothing I could save. Whenever I approach banks, I am told they are not able to help me since I do not have the required area of land,” said Ms. Anthoniamma, a Tamil labourer who lives near Kumily.

She has a real problem, as the banks are unwilling to extend farm loans for plots with an area less than 50 cents. Ms. Anthoniamma has only 25 cents of land. She is dependent on private money lenders and today has a debt of nearly Rs.1.50 lakh. “Sir, you should help people like us who are ready to work on the farm,” she told the M.S. Swaminathan Committee appointed by the Central government to study the farm crisis in the district, during the second day of its sitting in Idukki district here on Sunday.

The session devoted to the specific issues of the farmers from Peermade taluk threw more light on the problems of small farmers who have to satisfy themselves with inferior land quality as the big plantations have taken away all the prime land. Add to this, the degradation on account of the indiscrete use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

With the farm crisis continuing, most of the small and marginal farmers are in debt trap and one of the recurring demands at the meeting was for debt relief programmes.

Dr. Swaminathan himself set the tone for the discussions saying that he would like to focus on small farmers and agriculture labourers, issues like income security and work security and stressed the need to attract younger generation into agriculture sector. He underscored the need to experiment with high-value farming and pointed to the successful models of Mizoram which earned better income through floriculture and Gujarat which has set an example in animal husbandry.

Time has come taking a new look at agriculture from the traditional ways, he said and asked the farmers to turn to horticulture, ornamental plants and new varieties of vegetables like carrot, cabbage, etc. making use of the unique climatic condition in the area. He also stressed the need for quality improvement and value addition in the farm sector.

The major problems faced by the small farmers included the lack of proper title deeds, price fluctuations, lack of proper scientific inputs and unexpected natural calamities according to the submission made by the Peermade Development Society.

S. Balaravi, team leader, K.U.K. Namboodiri, director, Kalpetta Centre of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Francis George, MP, Bijimol, MLA, District Collector A.K. Singh and others were present.

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