Madurai: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Sivaganga has demanded that paddy procurement centres should be inaugurated in 445 village panchayats in the district while paddy farmers in the district are getting ready for harvest after nearly five years.
Sivaganga district has been drought prone for more than four years and last year crops had failed due to drought. In previous years, farmers, who had attempted to cultivate paddy, incurred heavy losses even after cultivating the crop with the help of wells and tankers since paddy procurement centres were not established in the district.
K Veerapandi, a farmer said that paddy had been cultivated in about 70,000 hectares in Sivaganga district and harvesting had begun in places like Devakottai. “Two types of paddy, the fine grains and the bigger grains, have been cultivated and the government usually procures only the fine variety but this year they should accept both,” he said.
In the previous years, there were a lot of malpractices in the procurement centres, where those who took the centres on contract, made the farmers pay for threshing paddy though the government gave a subsidy for the same. Though the procurement is done for bags of 41 kilograms each, the people at the centres weigh a bag at 42 or 43 kilograms causing loss to farmers.
Now, farmers have been giving bags of paddy to private parties, who are taking them for cheap rates–Rs 900 per bag, while the government will pay Rs 1,700 for the same. Farmers have spent as much as Rs 13,000 to Rs 15,000 for cultivation on one acre of land and up to Rs 22,000 if they employed workers during the cultivation process.
Hence, the government should open procurement centres in all the village panchayats to help the farmers pay their dues without delay as most of them have borrowed heavily to cultivate paddy this year though there were good rains, said Kandasamy of Sivaganga.
If the centres are opened in all the villages, the procurement can be done faster and farmers will not face losses as paddy starts drying when the procurement process takes long and they lose about 10 kg per bag, said Veerapandi.
Sivaganga district has been drought prone for more than four years and last year crops had failed due to drought. In previous years, farmers, who had attempted to cultivate paddy, incurred heavy losses even after cultivating the crop with the help of wells and tankers since paddy procurement centres were not established in the district.
K Veerapandi, a farmer said that paddy had been cultivated in about 70,000 hectares in Sivaganga district and harvesting had begun in places like Devakottai. “Two types of paddy, the fine grains and the bigger grains, have been cultivated and the government usually procures only the fine variety but this year they should accept both,” he said.
In the previous years, there were a lot of malpractices in the procurement centres, where those who took the centres on contract, made the farmers pay for threshing paddy though the government gave a subsidy for the same. Though the procurement is done for bags of 41 kilograms each, the people at the centres weigh a bag at 42 or 43 kilograms causing loss to farmers.
Now, farmers have been giving bags of paddy to private parties, who are taking them for cheap rates–Rs 900 per bag, while the government will pay Rs 1,700 for the same. Farmers have spent as much as Rs 13,000 to Rs 15,000 for cultivation on one acre of land and up to Rs 22,000 if they employed workers during the cultivation process.
Hence, the government should open procurement centres in all the village panchayats to help the farmers pay their dues without delay as most of them have borrowed heavily to cultivate paddy this year though there were good rains, said Kandasamy of Sivaganga.
If the centres are opened in all the villages, the procurement can be done faster and farmers will not face losses as paddy starts drying when the procurement process takes long and they lose about 10 kg per bag, said Veerapandi.
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