Buoyed by bumper harvest this year, farmers in the district have appealed to the district administration to protect them from being exploited by private traders even as Collector asked them to approach the paddy procurement centres established by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation.
Giving details of 50 procurement centres established in various blocks in the district, Collector K. Nanthakumar said 16 of them had already started functioning from January 14 and the remaining would start procuring paddy from the first week of February.
Addressing the Farmers’ grievance redressal meeting here on Friday, he said the recruitment of manpower for the remaining centres had been completed and the farmers could sell their produces at the centres to get fair price and avoid getting cheated by others.
The Collector said the centres would be shifted from less paddy supplying areas to more paddy supplying areas to benefit farmers. The centres would accept paddy with a moisture content of up to 17 per cent and would pay Rs.1,470 per quintal for fine variety and Rs.1,410 per quintal for common variety.
As each centre would have a cash flow of Rs.one lakh, the farmers could get instant money for the supply of paddy, the Collector said. The farmers were free to bring to the notice of the agriculture officers if they could not get money on the same day or any difficulty in selling their produce at the centres.
As the government has opened 50 centres this year, compared to 17 last year, the menace of touts would be very minimal, Mr. Nanthakumar said.
The farmers urged the district administration to direct the private traders to procure paddy per quintal basis instead of per bag basis as they weigh as much as 64 kg per bag.
