Portable paddy drier to be deployed in Thanjavur

Arrival of a portable paddy drier (PPD) in Thanjavur has raised the hopes of farmers that they can, to some extent, realise a respectable harvest this samba season thatwas ravaged by unseasonal rain.

A section of progressive farmers has begun to prevail upon the government machinery to consider deployment of portable paddy driers at direct purchase centres to help farmers sell their paddy with moisture content of 17% to 20%.

Harvested paddy and the standing crop have been badly affected by the unseasonal rain. Several thousand of acres of paddy crop are lodged due to heavy rain and inundation in the district and in neighbouring delta areas.

Progressive farmers such as G. Srinivasan of Ganapathi Agraharam have urged officials to deploy PPD machines to help them meet the moisture content limit for sale of paddy at DPCs.

Though the State government has announced that paddy with a moisture content of up to 20% will be procured at DPCs in view of the unexpected inclement weather over the past few weeks, the harvested paddy stored in the open near the centres in areas such as Ponnappur near Uloor in Pattukottai region has started to sprout, farmer say.

With weathermen predicting normalcy in the days to come, paddy crop ready for harvest but lodged on the fields may also face a similar situation. Hence, PPDs at direct purchase centres will be of immense help to them to salvage some quantity of paddy grain during the current season, they point out.