The farmers across Dindigul district on Monday staged a protest in front of the Dindigul Collectorate demanding that the State government waive cooperative crop loans as promised. Various farmers’ organisations submitted their petitions to Dindigul Collector S. Saravanan following the protests.

Over 150 farmers participated in the protest. The protesters said most of them were small and marginal farmers. More than 150 agricultural products were being produced in Tamil Nadu. Among them, the Central government had fixed the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for only 21 products and there was procurement of only sugarcane, paddy, and copra (dried coconut).

The farmers said they were not receiving a fair price for 98% of the total food products they produced. They were facing a growing debt. As a result, the farmers said they were forced to sell the land to repay the debts. The farmers had suffered losses over the past five years and were unable to pay the loans.

They said a promise had been made that cooperative crop loans would be waived completely for farmers owning under five acres of land holding and waived by 50% for the farmers owning over five acres of land holding.

The farmers demanded that the State government completely waive all cooperative crop loans of the farmers as a one-time measure. They urged the State government to fulfil the promise which was made and to protect the livelihood of the farmers.