CHENNAI: After unseasonal rainfall flooded paddy fields extensively in the delta districts last week, Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday requesting relaxations in procurement norms.
The union government was urged to allow procurement of paddy from farmers with moisture content up to 22%, and relax the minimum limit for immature, shrunken and shrivelled grain to 5% (instead of 3%) and for damaged, discoloured and sprouted grain to 7% (instead of 5%).
“Even as the farmers in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai and Pudukkottai districts were gearing up for harvesting Samba paddy in February, unseasonal showers last week inundated the fields to the extent of around 1 lakh hectares, as per our preliminary assessment. Despite the best efforts of the state government to drain out the water and resume the harvest process, the harvested grains are having high moisture content due to the exposure to heavy rains,” the letter read.
The chief minister further requested the prime minister to issue instructions allowing the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to procure paddy from the farmers with moisture content up to 22%, among other relaxations in the procurement norms. Elaborating on the steps taken by the state government to expand the area of paddy cultivation, Stalin said,
“Irrigation channels in Cauvery delta were desilted early, water from the Mettur Dam was released much ahead of schedule, and subsidies, among other benefits, for Kuruvai cultivation were distributed to the farmers. Due to these initiatives, we were able to take up cultivation in a record area of 4.19 lakh hectares during the Kuruvai season and 16.43 lakh hectares during the Samba/Navarai cultivation in the State.”