Tamil Nadu   

TNCSC exceeds paddy procurement target

K. Subramanian

Good yield despite last year's heavy rain and floods

NAGAPATTINAM: The Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation has procured 1.53 lakh tonnes of paddy in the Cauvery delta region here. It has exceeded its procurement target of 1.38 lakh tonnes.

A. Bharathithasan, Senior Regional Manager of TNCSC, Nagapattinam, told The Hindu on Tuesday that the TNCSC was able to procure more than 1.50 lakh tonnes of samba paddy in spite of the heavy rains and floods that affected the standing crop in October, November and December last year.

Mr. Bharathithasan said the TNCSC had opened 209 Direct Purchase Centres (DPCs). Winnowing machines were used at the DPCs to remove the chaff in the paddy. The TNCSC procured more than 1.31 lakh tonnes of fine variety paddy and 20,000 tonnes of the common variety.

Farmers' interest

He said farmers had shown keen interest and the average daily arrival at the DPCs was about five tonnes. However, the arrival had touched a peak of 8,000 tonnes for a few days last month.

He said about 1.75 lakh tonnes of samba paddy was procured in the district last year and hoped to achieve this figure this year also. The TNCSC purchased paddy from the farmers with moisture content up to 20 per cent with usual grade cut in the price by offering a price of Rs. 600 a quintal for Grade A variety and Rs. 570 for the common variety.

The TNCSC has stored 80,000 tonnes of paddy in its 11 cap storages and two godowns. Nearly 22,000 tonnes of paddy had been moved to other districts.

Harvest nearing completion

M. Bose, Joint Director of Agriculture, Nagapattinam, told The Hindu that harvest of samba paddy was over in 90 per cent of the area. The samba and thaladi paddy crops were raised on about 1.36 lakh hectares under transplantation and direct sowing. The average yield was less than one tonne per hectare during the current samba season.

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