Kerala - Alappuzha   

State moots subsidy for harvesters

ALAPPUZHA: The State government will think about providing subsidies to ‘padasekharams’ to buy harvest machines, Coir and Cooperation Minister G. Sudhakaran said here on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after visiting rain-hit paddy fields in Kainakary in his constituency, the Minister said discussions would be held at the panchayat-level with farmers, farm labourers and officials concerned after which a decision on the subsidy for harvest machines would be taken. The subsidy would most likely be given to groups of farmers who come together to cultivate on combined plots of land, known in local parlance as ‘padasekharams.’

Panchayats would also be asked to register names of people interested in taking up manual harvesting before the second round of cultivation begins in Kuttanad around June. Once such a list was ready, it would be easier to identify where there was a shortage of labourers and to provide those areas with harvest machines. The respective panchayats and the Agriculture department could handle the process this year, while the government would think about taking up the procedure from next year, he said.

Mr. Sudhakaran also said complaints of insurance officials not yet beginning to assess the crop loss in order to disburse crop insurances to farmers who had taken loans for cultivation had been brought to his notice. Directions would be issued to the District Collector to convene a meeting immediately of insurance companies, banks, farmers and officials concerned to settle the issue.

The Minister also allayed fears of farmers that damaged paddy would not be procured by the government. Farmers with whom he interacted at Kainakary were also told that the Rs.12 crore assistance announced by the government was only an interim relief and that the State government would not set limits to the compensation that had to be given to rain-hit paddy farmers. The price of paddy too would continue to be hiked.

Earlier, Mr. Sudhakaran said Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy and his allies in the United Democratic Front should apologise to the public for returning from Kuttanad without harvesting a single grain during the much touted symbolic harvest at Kidangara on Wednesday.

The UDF leaders had merely posed for photographs atop the harvest machine instead of helping the farmers to harvest the paddy as they had announced.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

State moots subsidy for harvesters
BJP seeks board for Devaswom recruitment

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu