TIRUCHY: Samba paddy farmers in Tiruchy and surrounding districts, who have completed nursery transplantation, complain that private agencies force them to make additional purchases like pesticides alongside fertilisers, leaving them high and dry.
Blaming the “insufficient” fertiliser allotment emboldening such shops to “exploit” them, farmers urge the authorities concerned to increase supplies of such crop essentials to the district as well as act against the dealers forcing them to make unnecessary purchases.
According to sources, samba paddy cultivation has taken up over around one lakh acres this year in Tiruchy. As most farmers have completed nursery transplantation, the tender crop about 20 to 35 days old needs urea and other fertilisers like DAP.
When farmers hence approach private agencies to buy them, the latter often force them to purchase crop tonic or pesticide as well, S Lakhsmanan, a farmer from Lalgudi, alleged. This practice makes small and marginal farmers to spend more money than necessary, he said.
N Veerasekaran, state spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, said the aggrieved farmers are unable to benefit from primary agricultural credit cooperative societies (PACCS) as well as the authorities there prioritise distribution of fertilisers to loanee farmers, as per norms.
"We urge the cooperative department to purchase at least 60% of the fertiliser allotment for the Tiruchy district. It would help non-loanee farmers avoid unnecessary expenses and get them fertilisers as per their requirement," he added.
Mentioning that non-loanee farmers cannot also purchase fertilisers for credit from the cooperative societies, S Palani, a farmer from Anthanallur block, said, "As small and marginal farmers are not in a position to access credit facilities, private agencies exploit their situation by forcing them to buy unwanted things for profit. Shortage of fertilisers is also one of the reasons the private traders force their sales on us."
The issue was mentioned even during a recent monthly farmers' grievance reressal day meeting. To it, Collector M Pradeep Kumar instructed the officials concerned to act against errant private fertiliser shops.
Meanwhile, official sources mentioned a delay in the shipment of fertilisers from Cyclone Dana. Normalcy has, however, been restored now and regular shipments have begun arriving in Tamil Nadu. There hence would not be any further shortage, they added. It may be noted that fertilisers arrive at Tiruchy from places like Gujarat, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, among others.