Chandigarh: During the winter session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha member and environmentalist Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal raised the issue of farmer suicides in the Parliament. Quoting a report, he said 53,000 farmers and labourers committed suicide between 2017 and 2021 as they did not get adequate prices for their crops.
He said that the demands accepted by the central government during the farmers’ agitation against the farm reform laws in 2021 have not yet been fulfilled.
Emphasising on natural farming, he said Punjab has only 1.5 per cent cultivable area. Punjab alone is using 9 per cent of the total fertilizers and pesticides used in the country.
Punjab alone is using 9 per cent of the total fertilizers and pesticides used in the country. This is polluting the earth. Therefore, turn to natural farming and adopt agricultural diversification.
The central government should formulate a concrete policy in this regard. He demanded a farm loan waiver on the lines of corporates to get the farmer out of the debt trap.