more-in Hundreds of small-scale farmers who ventured into farming after obtaining bank loans have faced a setback with the perishing of crops in the monsoon downpour in the last couple of weeks. Though preliminary estimate prepared by the Revenue Department confirms crops loss in around 450 hectares, farmers’ organisations claimed it was just one-third of the total loss. Farmers who mainly took up cultivation of food crops and intercrops have been pushed into huge financial crisis. Large acres of plantain fields are still under water with no hope of revival. Some farmers harvested half-grown plantains to sell them in the vegetable market to combat the loss. “It is not just the crops, but the whole land under cultivation has been destroyed in the flood, and we don’t know how to handle the loss. The Agriculture Department is yet to distribute last year’s compensation amount to select farmers, and there is no scope for timely benefit from the department,” said Purushothaman, a farmer from Mavoor. He added that only a loan waiver would be practical at the moment for farmers facing the seasonal setback. Though the loss was mainly for food crops and vegetables in the urban area, hillside farmers were badly hit by the destruction of acres of cash crops in landslips and wind. In Thamarassery, Kuttiyadi and Thiruvambadi regions, several acres of rubber plantations were destroyed in landslips. It included new and old plantations mainly owned by the lower income group of settler farmers. “The land destroyed in landslide can never be brought back to the previous state with new farming ventures. Several farmers are forced to give up their properties and move in search of safer locations,” said Jeeson Tom, a resident of Koodaranhi. He rued that the Revenue and Agriculture department squads were yet to visit most of the interior villages where small-scale landholders suffered huge loss in rain-related calamities. Meanwhile, officials of the Agriculture Department hinted that they would organise special camps in the district for farmers to submit details of crop loss for compensation. One such camp will be held on Monday at Thiruvambadi, and it will offer a chance to all farmers in the region to hand over the details of crops loss, they said. M.K. Raghavan, MP, demanded that the State government compensate farmers who incurred losses and those who were killed in the Kattippara landslide through a special financial package. In Kattippara alone, nearly 40 acres of agricultural land were destroyed with an estimated loss of ?1 crore, and the landslip reported in the area was the biggest ever in Kozhikode district, he pointed out.

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