Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, requesting him to issue suitable instructions to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare to advance the procurement of paddy by one month– from September 1, 2022 instead of October 1, 2022– to safeguard the interests of farmers in Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Stalin said while the paddy harvesting season in late September or early October would coincide with the southwest and northeast monsoon, leading to yield loss or massive crop damage due to inundation during cyclones, the Tamil Nadu government had taken proactive steps this year.
For the first time since Independence, the Chief Minister said, the Mettur reservoir was opened for Kuruvai paddy cultivation on May 24, ahead of the conventional date of June 12. The State government had also issued orders to take up removal of silt in the main canals and sub-canals for a length of 4,964.11 km in the Cauvery delta districts, and sanctioned an agri-input package worth ₹61 crore to the farmers in the region. Quality seeds of high-yielding paddy varieties and fertilizers had been mobilised in all the needy places and farmers were advised to complete the transplantation of Kuruvai paddy before the end of June itself, he said.
Thanking Mr. Modi for announcing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all Kharif crops, well before the commencement of sowing, he said due to the advance and timely initiatives of the Tamil Nadu government, it was expected that Kuruvai Paddy harvest would commence from the last week of August itself.
“As Tamil Nadu has experienced a favourable agricultural season this year, the order of the Government of India to procure Paddy from September 1 would immensely help farmers of Tamil Nadu fetch remunerative price for Paddy and realise the benefit of increased MSP for the Kharif Marketing Season, 2022 by Government of India,” he said.
