The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha has urged the State government to set up revolving funds to tackle crisis in arecanut and coconut crops.

Addressing presspersons in Mangaluru on Monday, Badagalapura Nagendra, general secretary of the sangha, said that the revolving funds should help intervene in the market when the prices of agriculture commodities crash.

MSP sought He said that the government should announce a minimum support price of ₹25,000 a tonne for coconut, ₹15,000 a tonne for copra and ₹35,000 a tonne for arecanut.

Ravikirana Punacha, president of the Dakshina Kannada district unit of the sangha, said the government should announce a minimum support price of ₹16,000 a tonne for rubber grown in the State.

Farmers’ suicide Expressing concern over the farmers’ suicide in various parts of the country, Nagendra said that around 1,300 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka alone since April.

Though the UPA government constituted Swaminathan committee to look into the causes of farmers’ suicide, it did not implement the recommendations of the committee.

The NDA government, which promised to implement the recommendations during Lok Sabha elections, is also not interested in implementing them, he said.

Diversion of farmland The Centre should at least implement the recommendation related to the prices of the agriculture commodities, he added. Nagendra said that the establishment of Agriculture Price Commission in Karnataka has not helped the farmers.

There is an increase in the use of farmland for non-farm activities in the country. To stop this, there is an urgent need to bring an Act to protect farmlands, he added.

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