‘Kerala is an ideal place for investment’

The pressure from the capital market had forced the previous government to move away from welfare measures. This had a very bad impact on Kerala’s society and its economy. Food security was threatened. Agrarian crisis was at its worst. Incidents of farmer suicides were increasing. The law and order situation was beyond the government’s control. Crime against women had increased. And, a senior minister in the UDF ministry had to resign following allegations of rape. Our first attempt has been to set the farming sector right. We understood that a majority of the farmers, especially in the districts of Wayanad, Palakkad and Kasargode, were not being able to repay their loans. Among the many reasons, one was that agriculture wasn’t paying them enough. Due to the unrealistic import policy proposed by the Centre, products like coffee, pepper and coconut could not fetch even the production cost. To address this issue, other than declaring a moratorium on repaying loans and waiving off the amount taken by the farmers who committed suicide, we took two significant measures. The most important was the setting up of the Agriculture Debt Relief Commission.

The Commission is negotiating with institutional credit agencies for debt relief to peasants. It is also arbitrating on a case-by-case basis on the debt owed to private moneylenders. The government will, in the case of poor farmers, take over such debts as recommended by the Commission. We hope the Centre and other state governments see such initiatives and help farmers facing similar problems in other parts of the country.

We also ensured that farmers get a minimum support price for their products. As part of the Food...