MAYILADUTHURAI: Farmers from Mayiladuthurai district, who use groundwater for cultivation, have started Kuruvai paddy harvest this week. Kuruvai has been raised on 37,870 hectares in the district, Agriculture Department sources said.
Around 95 % has been cultivated using groundwater and borewell. “We want the authorities to open adequate number of direct procurement centres in Mayiladuthurai district. All centres should open by September. We also demand mobile procurement system (vehicle-mode procurement) and mobile dryers to felicitate spot procurement,” said ‘Arupathi’ P Kalyanam, a farmer-representative from Tharangambadi.
Unlike their counterparts in Nagapattinam district, Mayiladuthurai farmers do not wait for Cauvery water to arrive to start Kuruvai cultivation. They start cultivating in April and start reaping the harvest in August.Kalyanam added, “The State government incentive provided to farmers during procurement should be based on area of cultivation and credited directly to the farmers.”
There are three types of paddy cultivation in Mayiladuthurai district. Farmers cultivated 2,850 hectares by direct sowing, 7,590 hectares using manual transplantation and 27,427 hectares using System of Rice Intensification. All of them will begin their harvest this month. R Rajasekar, a farmer-representative from Mayiladuthurai, said,
“Agricultural Engineering Department should provide adequate harvest machinery to the farmers, especially track-model harvesters. In case of insufficiency, machinery should be arranged from other districts. Without adequate support through government equipment, farmers will struggle and private machinery rental owners will hike their charges.”
An official from Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation said, “We are planning to open 160 DPCs for paddy procurement this year. We are expecting a total procurement of minimum 3 lakh metric tons of paddy from Kuruvai harvest from Mayiladuthurai district this year.” Harvest is taking place in Kuthalam, Mayiladuthurai, Sirkazhi, Kollidam and Sembanarkoil.