Coop societies can save farmers, says Kerala Finance Minister

Baghlingampally: Kerala Finance Minister Dr Thomas Isaac said that there was a need to fight for the revival of the cooperative sector as it could pull out the agricultural sector from the current crises. He was speaking at a seminar conducted on the topic "Agrarian crisis and systematic crisis of capitalism," held here at Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram on Friday.

Speaking at the seminar, Dr Isaac said that the current crisis has deepened after its integration with world markets. He said that governments have been controlling the prices of agricultural produce in order to keep inflation under control. This has had a tremendous impact on farmers, agriculture labours and others who depend on agriculture, he added.

The Minister said that the agrarian crisis deepened even further after the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. Agrarian crisis could be addressed only by taking necessary measures to increase farmers' income and productivity, he opined. He expressed his concern over the decreasing allocations made to the agriculture sector. Governments need to ensure that farmers get a minimum support price for their produce and agriculture loans in time.

Dr Isaac said that forcible acquisition of land from farmers was another reason for the agrarian crisis. He suggested that the leftist parties should play a key role in enhancing political awareness among farmers. Left parties should take initiatives to fight for minimum support price and land distribution issues, he added.

Dr Isaac said that the cooperative societies could play an important role in mitigating the agrarian crisis and explained the various measures taken by the Kerala government to mitigate agrarian crisis and other societal issues. He said that the Kerala government was trying to increase the income of farmers through eco-tourism and many NRIs have come forward to invest in it.

Expressing concern over the deepening agrarian crisis in India, various speakers offered solutions and remedies to mitigate the crisis. Later, AIKS vice president Ramachandran launched a book "Agrarian Crisis and alternative policies" brought about by Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram and gave the first copy of the book to president of AIKS Tirunavakkarasu. Also, Dr Isaac launched another book on Kisan Sabha history written by AIKS general secretary Anan Molla and handed over the first copy to Vijaya Raghavan.

The seminar was attended by a large number of representatives of AIKS who came from across the nation, state AIKS leader SarampallyMalla Reddy, state general secretary of RaithuSangham T Sagar, president of RaithuSanghamJanga Reddy, vice-president Bonthala Chandra Reddy and others.