Farmers want officials to find reasons for fall in sugarcane production in Theni district

Appealing to the Agriculture and Horticulture department officials to examine the reasons for the fall in sugarcane production in Theni district, the farmers wanted the district administration to suspend the 100-day employment guarantee scheme (MGNREGA) during agricultural activities here on Friday.

Theni District Collector V Sivakrishnamurthy chaired the monthly farmers’ grievance redress meeting held at the District Collectorate. Senior officers from various departments attended.

The farmers led by Jayapal claimed that the sugarcane crop area has been dwindling in the district. Though there were many reasons, they urged the officials to examine and arrest them.

Similarly, Ravi Narayanan said that many orchards in Periyakulam were in a bad shape. The farmers were felling the trees as there has not been good yield from the mangoes. The faculty members or the research scholars from the Periyakulam Horticulture College and Research Institute should help stop this, he said and urged the officials to issue Identity cards to the farmers as it would benefit them to apply for welfare schemes and subsidies.

Following frequent wild boar attacks near Vaigai dam, at least 500 coconut trees were damaged. The officials should inspect and give relief as the trees had to be felled since they would not give any yield. There was a steady rise in theft of sand from Vaigai dam area and the farmers’ wanted the Collector to directly inspect and intervene.

A farmer Seeniraj said that the TN government should waive the crop loans for the farmers irrespective of whether he/she was big, small or marginal. The loss has to be compensated and ensure that the ryots were relieved of the burden.

The fertilizer prices had gone up and the farmers pleaded to the officials to conduct random checks. There were also complaints of selling unwanted fertilizers/brands to the farmers by some dealers.

The farmers said that at Kumbakarai and Chinna Suruli, both the forest department and the panchayat authorities collected toll money from the users. A farmer Kennedy said that due to refusal of permission to enter the tribal habitation, the Manjanoothu people were losing income and appealed to the forest department to consider their plea.