Kuttanad Farmers Hesitant to Begin Second Crop as ₹299.5 Crore Dues Remain Unpaid

Thiruvananthapuram: Farmers in Kuttanad are reluctant to begin the second paddy cultivation season even as hundreds of crores owed to them for paddy procurement remain unpaid. While some have begun preliminary work such as flooding their fields to destroy weeds, many are gripped by anxiety over how to fund the next crop — which carries heavy costs in seeds, fertilisers, and labour — without having received payment for the previous harvest.

Farmers are owed ₹299.5 crore in paddy procurement dues alone. The arrears have accumulated because bank agreements were not renewed on time — Canara Bank's agreement lapsed last month and SBI's on the 30th. In previous years, the Chief Minister and Finance and Agriculture Ministers personally held discussions with banks to renew these arrangements. The UDF government's failure to initiate even a single such discussion has deepened farmer anxiety. Farm organisations have warned that if the government does not intervene urgently and release procurement payments immediately, the paddy farming sector in Kuttanad faces total collapse.

One in Five Farmers Has Already Quit

Pre-monsoon rains have already raised water levels in Kuttanad, and farmers fear that strong easterly inflows during the monsoon could breach the bunds protecting their fields. A shortage of quality seed paddy, combined with rising prices of fertilisers and pesticides, has made cultivation increasingly unviable. The number of farmers undertaking the second crop in Kuttanad has crashed from around 25,000 in earlier years to barely 5,000 today. The central government's directive to discontinue Kerala's additional incentive bonus paid over and above the national minimum support price has further driven farmers away from paddy cultivation.