more-in Finding fault with the conventional method of assessing rain-related farm losses, upland farmers in the district have called for the setting up of a separate commission to study the issue and devise a special package for farmers’ relief. Reiterating the demand, Karshaka Congress, a prominent farmers’ organisation with a large number of settler farmers as its members, will stage a sit-in in front of the collectorate on September 29. No representative Maintaining that there was no representative of farmers in any of the committees tasked with loss assessment in the district, leaders of the organisation urged the government to grant interest-free loans to farmers hit by the floods. Field studies The district units of all major farmers’ organisations such as the Indian Farmers’ Movement (Infarm), Janadhipathya Karshaka Union, and We Farm, an upland farmers’ collective, too have sought better field studies on the impact of the floods on agriculture and the loss suffered by those who have ventured into agriculture after obtaining bank loans. Leaders of Infarm and We Farm said that no banking firm had considered their request to write off loans availed by financially backward farmers. Moreover, the delay on the part of the government in taking a policy decision on the matter too is proving favourable to bankers, they alleged. Need for inspection K. Johnson, State general secretary of Janadhipathya Karshaka Union, said no proper field inspection had been conducted in the rural areas of the district where farmers suffered huge crop loss in natural calamities. Also, no significant relief aid has been handed over to any affected farmer in the landslip-hit areas, he claimed.

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