First crop harvest back in full swing

Paddy harvesting, procurement, related activities on the list of essential services

March 28, 2020 11:14 pm | Updated 11:15 pm IST - Alappuzha

Procurement of harvested paddy in progress at Kuttanad in Alappuzha.

Procurement of harvested paddy in progress at Kuttanad in Alappuzha.

The harvest of the ‘puncha’ crop (first crop) and procurement are back in full swing in Kuttanad.

Last week, the entire process came to a halt after the State government declared a lockdown and the district administration imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to check the spread of COVID-19. But, the State government later included paddy harvesting, procurement and other related activities on the list of essential services.

Time-bound manner

A high-level meeting attended by Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran, Food and Civil Supplies Minister P. Thilothaman, and Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar here on Thursday also decided to complete the harvest and procurement in a time-bound manner.

A.V. Suresh Kumar, senior paddy marketing officer, Supplyco, says that around 54,000 tonnes of paddy has been procured from Alappuzha district so far this season.

“Harvest has been completed in 40% of the paddy fields in the district. The truckers are charging excessive rates for transporting the procured paddy to mills. Although there are some issues, the procurement is going on,” he said.

Around 200 combine harvesters have been deployed in the district. In the wake of COVID-19, a special health protocol for loading and unloading workers, truck drivers and operators of combine harvesters has been formulated.

Officials say 80% of the paddy would be procured by April and the procurement would be completed by May 15, as decided at the high-level meeting.

According to the Agriculture Department, the farmers have undertaken paddy farming in more than 27,500 hectares in the district, a major portion of which is in Kuttanad. Some 49,000 farmers have registered online with Supplyco for selling their produce this season.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.