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.
