TN farmers condemn union agri minister's statement

The Federation of Tamil Nadu Agricultural Associations today condemned the statement of Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh citing some reasons for farmers' suicide and claimed that wrong policies of the government are leading to such suicides.
The statement was nothing but to degrade the farmers and a revelation of the mindset of the government with regard to issues confronting farmers, who were already suffering from various problems, FTAA Secretary S Nallasamy said in a release.
Due to the "wrong" policies of the government, including import policy, only 2.5 per cent of the total budget was allocated to the agriculture sector, on which 65 per cent of the population was depending, he claimed.

The real reasons for farmers' suicides were the failure of the government to get remunerative prices for their produce, industrialisation and urbanisation and profession becoming non-profitable and not the ones cited by the union agriculture minister, Nallasami said.
Nallasami warned of massive agitation across the country, if such remarks degrading farmers were made in future.
Radha Mohan Singh had recently cited love affairs and impotency among other reasons for farmers' suicides.