THANJAVUR: As the harvest of samba and thalady paddy crops is drawing to an end in Thanjavur district, officials anticipate this year's quantity of procurement to be marginally lesser than last year. While a total of 5.30 lakh tonnes of samba and thalady paddy was procured last year, only 5.08 lakh tonnes of paddy has so far been procured through the 608 direct procurement centres (DPCs).
Officials of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) attribute the dip in the figure to farmers opting to sell their produce to private traders for better rates. Of the 1,38,905 hectares of samba and thalady paddy crop cultivation initiated in the district this year, only a few hundred hectares remain to be harvested.
Meanwhile, farmers lost a total of 10,450 hectares of crops to unseasonal rains that lashed the delta districts in the last week of January and the first week of February. It is to be noted that the procurement of samba and thalady paddy crops is also coming to an end.
While the A grade paddy is being procured at a rate of Rs 2,160 per quintal, the procurement rate of common variety stands at Rs 2,115 per quintal. "During the last samba season, a total of 5.30 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured. It will be difficult to achieve the similar figures this season," said an official of the TNCSC.
S Sivakumar, a farmer from Manathidal, concurring with the aforementioned official views, said the farmers who undertook Ponni paddy variety (BPT 5204) cultivation sold their produce to private traders. "These (private traders) offered Rs 2,250 per quintal against the DPC price of Rs 2,160. Around 40 per cent of the farmers in my area have cultivated the BPT 5204 variety," Sivakumar said.