A total of 45,097 tonnes of paddy has been procured in Thanjavur district from September 1 this year, according to J. Radhakrishnan, Food Secretary.
Disclosing this to reporters here on Wednesday, the Food Secretary said a total of 289 direct purchase centres had been opened in the district to procure paddy from the farmers from September 1 as the Union Government had conceded the request from farmers to advance the kharif marketing season procurement for 2022-23 from October 1 to September 1.
While 1.25 tonnes of paddy had been procured throughout the State from September 1 at the minimum support price fixed for the KMS 2022-23, which usually commenced from October 1, in Thanjavur alone 45,097 tonnes of paddy were procured from September 1 to 20.
Stating that steps had been initiated to prevent traders and middlemen measure their paddy at the DPCs, he said it was happy to note that farmers had taken up fine variety paddy cultivation on a larger scale of 55 to 60% of total cultivation.
Earlier, the Food Secretary inspected the construction of a godown at Pillayarpatti near Thanjavur.
