The district administration, which had sanctioned 34 Direct Purchase Centres (DPCs) for paddy across the district in the wake of harvesting of ‘pisanam’ paddy, has made arrangements for operating mobile DPCs so as to reach farmers in remote areas.
In his inaugural remarks during the farmers’ monthly grievance redressal meet held here on Friday, District Revenue Officer B. Muthuramalingam said the district, which received surplus rainfall during the north-east monsoon last year had increased the area under paddy cultivation and had been given permission for opening DPCs at 34 places. Of this, DPCs have been opened in 24 places, where 1,224 tonnes of paddy have been procured so far.
Since, farmers in hitherto unserved areas were seeking centres to sell their produce at the right price, the mobile DPCs would be operated in these areas shortly.
Poor quality seeds
On the seed quality certification measures being taken in the district by the Department of Agriculture, Mr. Muthuramalingam said the officials had so far taken 1,445 samples from 232 shops in the district and 54 samples were found to be of poor quality. Hence, 52 traders, who were selling these poor quality seeds had been blacklisted and appropriate action taken against them. Consequently, the Department of Agriculture had banned the sale of 41.40 tonnes of these poor quality seeds, worth about ₹23.04 lakh.
Raising the question pertaining to non-disbursal of insurance benefits to paddy farmers who had suffered crop loss in 2016 – 2017, P. Perumbadaiyar of Communist Party of India said 262 paddy farmers from Kalakkad area, who had insured their crop by paying the premium before the prescribed deadline, were yet to get the insurance benefits despite repeated appeal to the insurance firm.
Responding to it, Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, who was presiding over the meet, said the list of affected farmers and the quantum of insurance benefit arrears to be disbursed might be submitted to her so that she could raise the issue with the insurance firm for early disbursal of the compensation.
When farmer P. Sorimuthu of Zamin Singampatti wanted the officials to ensure clear display of norms for paddy procurement and the support price in the DPCs, Ms. Shilpa assured that the farmer’s suggestion would immediately be translated into action by the officials concerned and gave immediate instructions in this connection.
She also assured that the DPCs would be established only in easily accessible common places and not in places belonging to any individual.
Paddy harvesters
Farmers pointed out non-availability of paddy harvesters and said they were being forced to hire private machineries at a higher rental charges as the Department of Agricultural Engineering had only a couple of harvesters.
The Collector instructed the officials to take immediate steps to bring harvesters from other districts where paddy harvest was over.
On the appeal for release of water in Manimuthuar Dam Perunkaal from April 1, Ms. Shilpa said any decision on this appeal could be taken only based on the availability of water in the dam after the ‘pisanam’ paddy season.
“Since we have to provide drinking water to the people of two districts during summer that may extend up to even September-end, we cannot take any decision in this connection right now. Since drinking water requirement is our first priority, we’ll take appropriate decision after the end of this paddy season. If it is found that the dams have surplus storage even after meeting drinking water requirements, the district administration will certainly recommend to the government for release of water for irrigation,” Ms. Shilpa said.
When farmers from Maanur Therkkupatti complained about invasion of wild animals into their farms, the Collector ordered the officials of Department of Forest to inspect the affected ranches immediately and disburse due compensation at the earliest.
