Speaking at the monthly farmers grievances day meeting here on Friday, the District Collector, M.S. Shanmugham, said that samba has been raised on 1,22,459 hectares of land , and harvest has been completed on 7,721 hectares, with an average yield of 5,296 kilos per hectare.
It had been planned to raise black gram on 50,000 hectares this year, he said.
From October 1, 2010, to January 25th the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) has procured 96,380 tonnes of paddy. A total of 307 Direct Purchase Centres are functioning in the district – Thanjavur taluk 33, Thiruvaiyaru taluk 16, Orathandu 70, Kumbakonam 43, Thiruvidaimaruthur 30, Papanasam 49, Pattukottai 45, and Peravurani 21.
Farmers are paid Rs.1, 100 per quintal for grade A paddy and Rs.1, 050 per quintal for the common variety.
Farmers complained that flood relief has not been given to all the affected farmers, and they enquired as to when the village-wise crop insurance scheme will be implemented in the district.
Surya Narayanan, Administrative Officer, Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd, said that at present firca and block level assessment is being done for payment of compensation under crop insurance scheme, but this is not helping individual farmers. In Sivaganga, Cuddalore, and Namakkal districts village-wise assessment is being done on experimental basis, and the Collector has sent a proposal to the government to include Thanjavur district under the scheme. It will be done soon, Surya Narayanan said.
A sum of Rs.6.17crore has been received from the government for payment of compensation for the year 2009, and it has been disbursed to farmers through co-operative banks. For the samba season this year, crop cutting experiment is being undertaken in the district. After assessing the yield loss, compensation will be paid to farmers, he said.
N. Asokan, Superintendent Engineer, PWD, and C. Suresh Kumar, District Revenue officer, participated.
