Delta cries for lower moisture content limit

TIRUCHY: Farmers from the Delta region are dejected as their harvested paddy stock is piling up before the Direct Procurement Centres (DPC), drenched due to the rains, as the transportation of already procured produce to the godowns is delayed, making them urge the State government to get moisture content relaxation from the Centre.

The State government must intervene and obtain approval from the Union government for a relaxation of the moisture content, they urge.

While transportation issue is reported in DPCs across the Delta region, this has led to the accumulation of harvested kuruvai paddy in front of the centres. The rains in the past few days have worsened the situation, as produce left in the open is getting damaged. Several thousand paddy bags were damaged, and in a few places, the piled-up paddy has begun to sprout, resulting in significant losses for the farmers. The farmers who have been demanding compensation have also urged the State government to approach the Union government for the relaxation of the moisture content up to 22 per cent against the conventional condition of 17 per cent.

Despite the farmers having raised the issues of transportation and moisture content well in advance, they claim that the problem was not resolved.

“We were keeping the paddy bags in front of the DPC for the past seven days, and the staff failed to procure and ask us to wait. The already procured paddy stock has not been shifted to the godowns due to transportation issues. Amid all this, over 6,000 paddy bags have been damaged in one DPC at Boothalur as rains that lashed for a couple of days,” said Sundaravadivel, a farmer from Boothalur in Thanjavur.

He said that farmers had spread their drenched paddy along the roads for drying, but it rained every afternoon, resulting in the condition worsening.

The farmers claimed that around 50,000 bags of paddy, procured during the summer, had been damaged in the Delta due to unexpected rainfall. From then on, they appealed to the state government for adequate facilities for kuruvai procurement to avoid such damages, as rainfall was inevitable during kuruvai procurement.

They charged that the Chief Minister’s interaction with the collectors of the Delta district focused only on procurement, rather than preventing damage or alleviating moisture content issues. “We raised transportation delay, damage due to rains, bribery and gunny bag shortage well in advance. But nothing was sorted out”, said Swamimalai Sundara Vimalnathan.

He further stated that the state government should install dryer machines in every DPC during the kuruvai procurement, maintain an adequate stock of gunny bags, and resolve the long-pending issue of transportation. “The DPCs can make use of the tractors belonging to the farmers to transport paddy until the transportation issue has been solved”, Vimalnathan suggested.

He also urged the state government to obtain approval for the relaxation of moisture content and standardise the 22 per cent moisture condition, which would prevent heavy losses to farmers.