The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Samba paddy arrives early at direct purchase centres

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Saturday, Jan 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Samba paddy arrives early at direct purchase centres

S. Vydhianathan

Mobile DPCs in non-delta areas
Stock position satisfactory

CHENNAI: As the harvest of samba paddy has begun in the delta districts, direct purchase centres of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation have started getting paddy.

Though samba procurement season starts by the middle of December every year, DPCs get paddy after the second week of January as harvest starts after Pongal. This year the DPCs in the districts started getting paddy from the first week of January itself.

The Corporation in the last 15 days had purchased about 41,500 tonnes in the districts and daily arrival in the DPCs is of the order of 7,000 tonnes. So far, 20,000 tonnes have been procured in Tiruvarur district, 17,000 tonnes in Thanjavur and 2,000 tonnes in Nagapattinam district.

According to official sources, in the last kuruvai season, which ended on December 15, the Corporation did not get even one tonne of paddy. One reason attributed was the better price offered by private traders in the open market. Moreover, there was no surplus paddy available in the districts, as the coverage was less due to late release of water from the Mettur reservoir. Delta farmers, forced to skip kuruvai, took up samba paddy cultivation as, by that time, the level at the reservoirs had improved substantially.

The Corporation has fixed a target of 16.50 lakh tonnes in the current samba season against 12.90 lakh tonnes it purchased in the last samba season. The shortage of about 3 lakh tonnes in the last kuruvai procurement would be made up in the current samba season.

The Corporation hopes to get more paddy as the price offered by it is on a par with the open market price. It is paying Rs.825 per quintal for Grade A paddy and Rs.795 per quintal for the common variety, including an incentive of Rs.50 by the Tamil Nadu Government.

A substantial quantity is expected in non-delta districts too in view of the better price. In Tiruvallur district the Corporation purchased 550 tonnes in the current month. This is the first time the corporation procured paddy from the district. Following the demand from non-delta farmers, the Corporation decided to operate mobile DPCs in these areas to purchase paddy from the farmers’ door-steps.

As regards the stock position, sources said rice for the current month public distribution system had already been dispatched.

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