Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Paddy yield encouraging

R. Sundaram

Agricultural labourers demand higher wages

ERODE: Paddy harvest has started in the Kalingarayan ayacut. On an average, farmers are getting 6 to 6.5 tonnes of paddy per hectare, which is encouraging.

Kalingarayan farmers have raised ADT, AST, ATT varieties of paddy over 2,500 hectares. Farmers also received sufficient quantity of water. They however complained that when the crop was in the flowering stage, contaminated water was let into the canal, which slightly affected the yield.

Farmers began the harvest in the third week of November. Due to rain in the fourth week, water entered paddy fields.

After draining of the water, the harvest restarted. It would be over by the third week of December. Skilled agricultural labourers from Dharapuram, Attur, Rasipuram, Musiri, Palani and Mettupatty are engaged in paddy harvest.

Workers camp

They are camping in a place and going around fields. Usually they accept only paddy as wages, not money and per acre they get 300 kilogram as wages. This year they are demanding 350 to 400 kilogram paddy as wages and the landowners have agreed.

However, the latter said that they were not getting reasonable price for paddy and it was selling at Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 per kilogram. The haystack is also selling at low rates due to rain.

Procurement centres

But on Thursday, haystack rates increased. Meanwhile, the district administration has started monopoly paddy procurement centres in Senapathypalayam, Bhavani, Dharapuram, Gobichettipalayam, Perundurai and Sathyamangalam. Farmers could sell paddy at these centres, it said.

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