The Hindu Business Line : Centre sending team to assess Kerala farmers' woes

A HIGH-LEVEL team from the Centre will visit Kerala to find ways to solve the problems faced by the farm sector and to assess the drought situation in the State.

The team is coming on the basis of a memorandum submitted by a Cabinet sub-committee to the Centre and the plea made by the Chief Minister to the Prime Minister recently, according to Ms K.R. Gowri, Agriculture Minister.

The Centre is sending a multi-disciplinary team comprising experts from Agriculture, Finance and Commerce Ministries. It will also include specialists from the Centre's credit management, plantation, banking and insurance sectors.

The team will visit Wayanad and other areas and submit a report to the Centre evaluating the gravity of the problems being faced by the farm sector in the State. The report will also recommend to the Centre the various short and long-term assistance that are to be extended to the State, besides giving the outlines of the programmes that need to be initiated to rejuvenate the farm sector.

The Minister said that the central team would be apprised of the emergency debt relief measures to be extended to the farmers, the need for replanting of coffee, tea, pepper, rubber and arecanut crops and bringing the cash crops under the purview of the crop insurance scheme.

She said the Centre had informed that the farmers would get maximum assistance as per the guidelines issued by it concerning the National Calamity Contingency Fund and the Calamity Relief Fund (2000-05).

This apart, the Wayanad district would get special assistance under Section 275 of the Constitution considering its predominantly tribal populace and economic backwardness.

Meanwhile, the State Government has issued orders sanctioning Rs 5.5 crore towards the compensation being paid to the farmers in Wayanad who suffered loss of crops. This is apart from the debt relief package announced by the State Government recently for the farmers in the region.

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