: Hundreds of farmers in Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts on Tuesday blocked roads in protest against supply of imported palm oil through public distribution outlets despite demand from agriculturists for supplying coconut oil and groundnut oil.
A group of farmers blocked the Pollachi Road at Sultanpet, near Sulur, in Coimbatore district, while another group sat in protest at the Four-Road signal point in Palladam town in Tiruppur district.
The protesters were arrested and released later in the day.
The protests coordinated by the Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Protection Movement and other farmer welfare associations were carried out across the State in 22 locations.
Farmers raised slogans assailing both the Central and State governments for ignoring the plight of coconut growers, which has affected their livelihood.
According to the farmers, while the cost of a coconut has halved from ₹20 to ₹10 in the last 10 years, the labour cost has more than doubled from ₹400 to up to ₹1,000 per day per workers.
Speakers at the protest meetings pointed out that the coconut farmers had lost livelihood due to the Central government’s import of edible oil to the extent of 70% of the country’s requirement, despite the scope for substantial production of edible oil.
They wondered why the Central Government was not exercising the option of levying hefty tax on imported edible oil as a special safeguard mechanism accepted by the World Trade Organisation.
They expressed disgust over the act of National Agriculture Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED.) to procure copra at the rate of ₹108.60 per kg and sell it in the open market for ₹67 per kg. The sale of 1.5 lakh tonnes of copra in open market by NAFED in recent months had caused a 20% slide throughout the country, they said.
They farmers questioned the “duplicity” of the State Government in quelling the farmers’ protests at Chennai on this issue while commending the same act of the farmers in New Delhi in the Assembly.
