Thanjavur
Delta farmers have suggested certain measures to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation to ensure that their produce alone be procured at the direct purchase centres (DPCs) opened in the delta districts during this samba/thaladi season.
In their appeal, they have pointed out that in the absence of a stringent mechanism, farmers from other districts and traders dispose their stock at the DPCs opened in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Mayiladuthurai districts that have been set up exclusively to purchase the paddy harvested by Delta farmers.
P. Kalyanam of Arupathi, general secretary, Federation of Farmers Associations of Delta Districts (FFADD), has called upon the District Administrations to post special teams to monitor the movement of paddy through check-posts in the district borders during the procurement period.
Further, issuance of identity cards containing the personal details and about their landholdings would help avoid ‘middlemen’ lining up as farmers to measure their stock at the DPCs.
To make the procurement process smooth and error-free local farmers should be directed to produce cultivation certificates issued by the village administrative officers only once at the time of registering their names at the DPCs to measure their paddy, a minimum of two DPCs be set up in a block of five revenue villages, a ceiling of two tonnes per acre per farmer be fixed as the procurement limit depending on the extent of the area cultivated by individual farmers and DPC-level vigilance committees comprising local farmers be formed to monitor the procurement process, he added.
In the case of large farmers, the huge quantity of paddy harvested by them should be procured by the Corporation at the farm gates itself so that the issue of inordinate delay in measuring of paddy at the DPCs experienced by the marginal and small farmers could be avoided.
Pleading the Corporation to desist from effecting a cut in procurement price citing higher moisture content level, Mr. Kalyanam pointed out that already the governments have announced that paddy with 20 per cent moisture could be measured at the DPCs. Providing the tractor-drawn portable paddy drier services at the DPCs through the Agriculture Engineering Department or individual farmers could also be considered, he added.
The FFADD general secretary has also urged the Corporation to ensure that DPC staff are paid proper remuneration for their services to avoid malpractice at the centres since the staff claim that they are being underpaid.
In his memorandum, Sundara Vimalanathan, secretary, Thanjavur District Cauvery Farmers Protection Association has also urged the government to revive the mobile procurement exercise with a minimum of 100 gunny bags of paddy as a prime condition to avail this service by the farmers.
While demanding that DPCs should be opened in adequate numbers, the TDCFPA secretary insisted that paddy with the moisture content of over 17 per cent should be procured citing the relaxation announced by the governments and the holding capacity of gunny bags be increased to 60 kilograms per bag like in the past.
Insisting that contact numbers of officials involved in the procurement exercise be displayed at the DPCs, Vimalanathan has suggested that the local farmers’ tractor-trailers could be engaged by the corporation for moving the procured paddy from the DPCs to the mills or nearby closed/open storage points.
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