Chennai’s rice bowl, Tiruvallur district, recently opened 17 direct procurement centres (DPCs) as part of its preparations for the paddy harvest this Sornavari season. A total of 25,203 hectares of land are estimated to yield 1.67 lakh tonnes of a mix of medium slender and mota (thick) rice varieties.
District Collector Alby John Varghese explained that of this quantity, around 50,000 tonnes would reach the DPCs. “A similar amount would be kept aside by farmers for their own use and another 50,000 tonnes would go to private buyers. We are opening the centres in phases, and the 13 blocks wILL have 57 DPCs in all. The Sholavaram block will have nine centres since it has more farmers cultivating paddy this season. Harvest is mostly completed by the end of October,” he said.
All the centres are to come up on government properties and so e-seva maiyyams, regulated marketing committee godowns and community centres are to be used to store the paddy brought in by the 4,000-odd farmers. “We have instructed officials to move the paddy bags as quickly as possible to safe storage. No bag is to be left in the open. This year, we have a new storage space at Gurupuram that has been constructed at a cost of ₹13 crore. It has 10 godowns that can each hold a thousand tonnes,” Mr. Varghese added.
Farmers will get ₹21.60/kg for fine varieties and ₹21.5/kg for the mota variety. The farmers are being paid last year’s rate since fresh rates are yet to be announced for the next Fasli year (harvest year) by the Central government.
A farmer from Ponneri taluk, Jayakanthan, said that because of the DPCs they were getting better rates for paddy. “We were getting rates as low as ₹12-15 per kg earlier. Now, if a private buyer says he will pay us less, we can always tell them that we won’t accept a rate lower than the DPC rate. Also, since we are informed when we have to go to the centre, we don’t have to wait for our turn in the open,” he said.
An official of the Agriculture Department explained that based on suggestions from farmers, billing clerks at all the centres have been changed, village administrative officers have been directed to approve or reject the applications of farmers in the DPC portal within three days of the submission of applications, and the adangal (confirmatory certificate that a particular farmer has indeed grown paddy on his lands this season) should be issued without delay and also in consultation with the assistant agricultural officer.
“Special teams have been formed to ensure that the farmers are in no way inconvenienced and brokers or private traders do not come anywhere near the DPCs,” the official explained.
