Ramaswami: “From a means of livelihood, the land has become a commodity in Kerala and the wide stretches of fallow land are a proof of it. Apart from stray entrepreneurs, nobody is employing innovating farming methods and many farmers have no idea about the kind of latest equipment that can make their occupation hassle-free. We have been compensating for the shortage in manpower using guest labourers, but the possibilities of mechanisation are yet to be explored,” - CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai