NAGAPATTINAM: Farmers have alleged that middlemen are procuring paddy at low prices from Villupuram, Vellore, Tiruvanamalai and Kanchipuram districts and selling it at a profit to direct procurement centres (DPCs) in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur districts.According to the farmers, the inadequacy of DPCs in the northern districts is what allows private agents to buy a kilo of paddy for `10 and sell it for Rs 16.65 per kg. Though it is not illegal to sell harvested paddy from one district to DPCs of another district, farmers are upset that private procurers are purchasing paddy at low prices and making a hefty profit at DPCs of the delta districts.
Cauvery Dhanapalan, general secretary of the Cauvery Delta Farmers Protection Association, said, “Harvest is over in around four lakh hectares of agricultural land in Kanchipuram, Thiruvanamallai, Villupuram and Vellore districts, but there are only 120 DPCs in the region. Because of this, farmers who had trouble selling their paddy sought the help of private procurers who sell it to DPCs in Nagapattinam and Tiruvarur.” Purushothaman, a farmer from Thiruvanamallai district, said, “While paddy cultivation was done on 1.68 lakh hectares and saw production of 8.5 lakh tonnes since August 2017 in Thiruvanamallai district, there are only 30 DPCs.
Farmers have no option but to seek the help of private procurers. Even if farmers can sell paddy in person, small farmers cannot hire lorries to sell their harvest. So, they are going to private agents. The government should have opened more DPCs in our districts.” When contacted, a senior TNCSC official said, “As per the collector’s direction, we can procure paddy from any farmer from anywhere in India. There are no limitations. If a farmer comes with a load along with proper documents, how can we reject his paddy? As we are getting all documents from farmers, including their land details, private agents cannot really sell huge quantities of paddy to the DPCs”.
Dhanapalan said, “Even as there are procedures, we cannot deny that adjustments are made when procuring paddy from private agents. The chief minister should inquire about this and open the necessary number of DPCs every year based on the requirements of each district.” As of now, 234 DPCs in Nagapattinam have procured about 1.63 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and procurement is going on in 41 DPCs. In Tiruvarur, 3.56 lakh metric tonne of paddy have been procured by 416 DPCs and 340 other centres are still buying paddy from farmers. Officials said all DPCs would be closed down at the end of this month.