Farm suicides have come down, says Shobha Karandlaje

‘The Centre is planning to introduce a law to protect the fertility of top soil’

The number of farmers suicides has come down after the BJP came to power at the Centre and in the State, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje said on Sunday.

Addressing a rally of farmers and women in Raibag in Belagavi district, she said that farmers suicides reached a peak during the Congress regime.

“The reasons for that was that farmers were not getting remunerative prices, cost of inputs like seeds, fertilizers and pesticides was prohibitively high, monsoon was unpredictable and there was no access to easy loans. But the BJP has solved most of these problems and the number of farmers suicides has come down drastically. Farmers are relieved that the BJP has come to power,” she said.

She announced that the Union government is planning to introduce a law to protect the fertility of top soil. It includes release of ₹50,000 in cash incentives to farmers every three years, she said.

She praised farmers as hard working individuals who were not worried about profits. “If India did not have to seek assistance from other countries during the COVID-19 lockdown, it is because of our farmer brothers and sisters,” she said.