CHENNAI : Samba paddy procurement is in full swing in the delta districts with the direct purchase centres receiving an average of 20,000 tonnes a day. As samba harvest has picked up , the daily arrivals may cross 25,000 tonnes during the week.

A Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation official told The Hindu as the delta farmers were reaping a bumper harvest, the corporation might surpass its procurement target of 15 lakh tonnes in the current season. So far it had procured 2.54 lakh tonnes.

Tiruvarur district was getting over 8000 tonnes a day, while Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts were receiving 5000 tonnes each. Arrivals are of the order of 800 tonnes and 500 tonnes in Pudukottai and Cuddalore districts. In Tiruchi, Karur and Perambalur districts there were no substantial arrivals.

"Fine Bapatla variety"

The official said private traders were actively participating in the procurement operations. For the first time, farmers had cultivated "fine Bapatla variety" which was well received by the private traders. In fact, representatives of mills from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were camping in the delta districts to purchase it at more than the minimum support price of Rs. 650 and Rs. 630 per quintal for the fine and common variety , including an incentive of Rs. 40 offered by the corporation.

Referring to complaints that farmers had to shell out at least Rs. 15 per bag (75 kg) for selling their produce to the Corporation, the official said farmers had been asked to inform officials if any of the DPC staff demanded money. The corporation had also given the telephone numbers of vigilance officers for farmers to contact regarding complaints. Two days ago, employees of two DPC centres, one each in Cuddalore and Tiruvarur districts were suspended. He wanted farmers to cooperate with the corporation in curbing corruption. If they brought in quality paddy, they could demand the DPC to purchase their produce without any cut. He said winnowing machines had been set up in all DPCs to clean the paddy free.

Quality

The official said that the corporation had to follow certain norms in accepting the paddy. As an "agent of the Food Corporation of India" it could accept paddy with certain percentage of immature and discoloured paddy. If it exceeded the limit, it had to be rejected.

Referring to farmers' suggestion that the corporation could sell immature and discoloured grains as poultry feed, he said the corporation's job was to purchase quality paddy for the public distribution system. If the quality was not good it would reflect in the rice distributed through the fair price shops in the State.

Rice stock position

Referring to the rice stock position, the official said the corporation had an inventory for three months' PDS supply.

The monthly offtake was about 2.8 lakh tonnes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail