TIRUCHY: Farmers who deposited kuruvai and early samba paddy harvest in government storage units months ago are laughing all the way to the bank as the open market price has improved. A 62-kg bag of paddy currently fetches Rs 1,260 to Rs 1,300.
On seeing the success of paddy farmers, groundnut farmers are also showing interest in depositing their produce in State-run warehouses.
Getting a fair price for their harvest has always been a major problem for farmers. Despite taking loans and putting in physical efforts for about 100 days, at the end of the harvest, they have little left. However, a series of awareness campaigns encouraged them to keep their crops in storage until prices increased.
“Farmers deposited 1,019 tonnes of paddy in storage. This includes 460 tonnes in the Manachanallur unit, 312 tonnes in Thuvarakuruchi and 247 tonnes in Lalgudi this season. Some farmers who kept their harvest in storage in January are taking it out as prices are rising,” said Sugumar, a senior Agricultural Marketing department official in Tiruchy. He added there are six storage units along with the regulated markets in the district. Storage costs 5 paise per quintal per day for farmers (the first 15 days are free exclusively for farmers) and 10 paise per day for traders. Farmers can keep the harvest for almost 180 days in storage. Apart from the Lalgudi facility which can store 2,000 metric tonnes, the other five facilities have a capacity of 2,500 tonnes each.
Nagendran, a farmer from Tiruchy, said, “As we have completed the harvest in January when the price of paddy was just 1,100 per 62-kg bag, selling our crops at that price would leave us with no profit. We then opted to keep the paddy till the market price is up. As we did not have a safe place to store our paddy, we approached the regulatory market storage unit and kept this year’s harvest. As the market price is currently on the rise, we have sold paddy for Rs 1,260 to Rs 1,300 per bag.”
He added that with just Rs 40 as rent, farmers were able to get Rs 200 extra per quintal. Agricultural Marketing department officials said peanut farmers are now showing interest in using their facilities to store crops.