KOZHIKODE: It appears that the intervention by the state government to tackle the agrarian crisis in Wayanad has miserably failed to instill confidence among the farmers of the district. One more farmer hailing from Pazhanchottil in Arimula within the limits of Kenichira police station ended his life on Monday morning. The deceased is Kunhikrishnan, 53, and he was found hanging at the leased land, where he had been doing banana farming, at 10 am. According to relatives and locals, Kunhikrishnan had been cultivating elephant yam and banana on the leased land. He owned only 10 cents of land and also used to work in nearby fields on daily wages.Relatives pointed out that he was under stress following crop failure and decline of banana prices. There are reports that he had a loan worth `4 lakh from the Gramin Bank and took funds around `1 lakh from various microfinancing agencies including Kudumbashree and Ayalkuttam. Kunhikrishnan is survived by wife Leela and two daughters, Anila and Vineetha.Meanwhile, the body of the farmer K K Ouseph, who ended his life on Sunday night, was buried at the Meenangadi St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church cemetery on Monday. Ouseph was doing rubber, coffee, pepper and arecanut farming on 2.5 acres of land and had a loan worth `2 lakh at the SBI Kainatty Branch.With the death of Kunhikrishnan, the total number of farmer suicides in Wayanad has become six and the death toll rose to eight across the state within three weeks. Finally, Socialist Janata (Democratic), which holds the agriculture and animal husbandry portfolio in the UDF government, has broken its silence over the issue. A meeting of the SJD sub committee here on Monday demanded the state government to take urgent steps to plug farmer suicides in the state. Officials of agriculture, revenue and animal husbandry departments and banks should jointly visit the houses of farmers who are under financial crisis and suggest alternate ways of income generation, said SJD senior vice-president Varghese George, according to a statement issued here on Monday.The government should implement a trade policy in which farmers can fix the prices of their produce. Besides, an ordinance should be issued to cancel the recovery steps mooted by the public sector banks as well as private banking institutions against the farmers, the meeting said.
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