NAGAPATTINAM: As the Union Budget is being presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday, cash-strapped farmers in the State expect a slew of sops to ease their financial burden. After going through a catastrophic year of Covid pandemic and lockdown, their sources of income have been further ravaged by cyclones and unseasonal rain.
Their demands include loan waiver, taking over of crop insurance scheme by the Union government and an increase in subsidies for farm inputs, among others.
“Due to a series of natural calamities and crop losses over the past few years, the farmers have lost their capability to repay their existing loans and take new loans. It will be only fitting that their loans are waived this year. Only then could they find their feet,” said PR Pandiyan, general secretary, Thamizhaga Kaviri Vivasaayigal Sangam.
The existing minimum support price (MSP) is not sufficient for the farmers to settle their loans, considering the heavy losses over the last one year. The farmers have therefore demanded for fixing a profitable price and forming a committee of multiple stakeholders for the purpose.