KANNIYAKUMARI: Many paddy farmers in and around Chenbagaramanputhoor in Thovalai taluk alleged that they had to sell the harvested crop to traders in the open market at a lower price after the direct paddy procurement centre (DPC) refused to purchase it, citing high moisture and other conditions.
Farmers of Chenbagaramanputhoor and nearby areas such as Kannanputhoor, Chozhapuram, Layam, Sanmugapuram, Ananthapadmanabhapuram, Puliyanvilai and Thovalai used to sell their harvested paddy at the DPC at Chenbagaramanputhooor, said Chenbagaramanputhoor farmers’ association president N Rakkisamuthu.
Paddy is grown in around 1,500 acres in these areas. There was intermittent rain when harvesting began here at the beginning of this month.
More than 90% of farmers could not sell their harvested crop at the DPC. They sold the paddy to traders in the open market for a lower price, incurring around Rs 10,000 loss per acre, he added.
Echoing Rakkisamuthu, farmer V Thiruvalluvan from Kannanputhoor said as the DPC imposed many conditions, farmers had to keep the paddy in sacks and pile them at the DPC.
The farmers also found it difficult in handling the paddy due to a shortage of workers. It took a few days to weigh our paddy due to moisture. There was weight deduction at the DPC because of moisture. We sold the remaining paddy to a private mill, he added.
“We sold the paddy to the private mill for Rs 20 lower than the DPC price of Rs 26 per kilogram,” Thiruvalluvan said.
Another farmer, J George Mickelson, said, “We had sold the harvested paddy to the DPC last season. But as the moisture content was more than 17%, we sold the paddy to private traders and faced more than Rs 500 loss per “kottai” (87 kg).”
Rakkisamuthu added that most of the small and marginal farmers were affected by the conditions imposed by the DPC. As the farmers had no other way, they had to sell the paddy for the price fixed by the traders. The DPC should serve for the welfare of the farmers, he stated.
However, Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation officials said that the Chenbagaramanputhoor DPC was purchasing 600 to 850 sacks of paddy from farmers but could only purchase paddy with less than 17% moisture content.