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Lack of storage facility puts farmers and traders in a fix

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

STORAGE PROBLEM: Paddy bags procured by the Farmers Regulatory Market Committee kept inside the storehouse in Thattanchavady.

PUDUCHERRY: Lack of storage facility in the godown of the Farmers Regulatory Market Committee (FRMC) at Thattanchavady is causing farmers and traders inconvenience.

The storehouse for paddy and pulses at Thattanchavady, one of the largest trading centres for agricultural produce run by the FRMC in the Puducherry region, is lacking in proper storage and internal roads.

The recent rain exposed the bad maintenance of the godown, with many bags of paddy and groundnuts getting drenched. Several bags of paddy bought by traders from farmers and stocked inside the godown were damaged. Likewise, a large quantity of groundnuts brought by farmers from villages in the neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu got soaked.

The paddy godown has only the roof. Traders say if there is delay in transporting the gunny bags and rain, the bags will get drenched, causing them an enormous loss. And the produce of farmers, too, goes unprotected from rain. Farmers who visit the storeroom, adjacent to the paddy godown, to sell pulses have to keep their produce in the open, for want of space.

Furthermore, the interior roads are slushy, traders and farmers complain. Whenever it rains, they have to wade through water.

Committee members of the FRMC say lack of storage is a problem they have been facing for long. On an average, 3,000 bags of paddy and 300 bags of pulses are brought from different villages in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu for sale. “Of late, there has been an increase in the number of farmers coming from Marakkanam and Tindivanam, compounding the problem of space shortage in the godown,” says Kalyanasundaram, secretary of the Puducherry market committee of the FRMC.

However, the godowns at Kannikoil, Madagadipet, Kunnichampet and Karaiampathur can manage the stock, mainly procured from adjacent places in the Puducherry region.

The government plans to relocate the Thattanchavady godown to provide more storage facility, says Mr. Kalyanasundaram.

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