With the harvest season drawing to a close, Direct Procurement Centres in the district are set to wind up operations within the next few weeks.
S. Ayyappan, Regional Manager, Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC), said that 19,284 tonnes of paddy had been procured in the 48 centres set up by the TNCSC across the district as of date.
“Additionally, 2,080 tonnes of paddy have been procured at 5 DPCs set up by the Cooperation Department,” he added.
Officials in the agriculture department said they would be undertaking surveys across the district and shut down the DPCs where procurement had completely stopped.
“While the amount of paddy procured has substantially increased when compared to the previous year, farmers cultivating high-quality variety of paddy preferred to sell it in the markets since it is in demand and they could command a high price for it,” Mr. Ayyappan explained.
Speaking about the procurement in the district, Joint Director for Agriculture Jaisingh Gnanadurai said that while there was a marked increase of a few hundred tonnes of paddy over last year’s procurement, they expected the procurement to touch 40,000 metric tonnes since the yield this year was high across the district. A good yield of paddy had been expected from over 44,000 hectares in the district. An official said that there were no major cases of malpractice reported regarding the functioning of the DPCs.
“Other than a few minor issues, there were no major raids. The monitoring committees too ensured the smooth functioning of the centres,” he noted.
