Steps will be taken to introduce mobile direct procurement centres (DPC) for paddy, wherever necessary, R. Sakkarapani, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, said here on Tuesday.
A pilot project to make bulk purchases of up to 200 tonnes of paddy through mobile DPC is being implemented at Panchanathikottai. The system will be extended to other districts, he said.
The Minister was speaking to reporters after attending a consultative meeting to elicit the views of farmers on samba paddy procurement and the Agriculture Budget here.
Agriculture Minister M.R.K. Paneerselvam chaired the meeting in which farmers’ representatives from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapatttinam, Mayiladuthurai, and Cuddalore districts participated.
Mr. Sakkarapani said at present 1,565 out of the 1,875 DPCs planned in the State this year have been functional. So far, 7.42 lakh tonnes of paddy had been procured in the State, including 6.08 lakh tonnes from delta districts. The paddy had been procured from 1.09 lakh farmers and ₹1,619 crore had been disbursed to them.
In 2021-22, 43.28 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured in the State and during 2022-23 the procurement went up to 44.22 lakh tonnes. “Although there was a drop in procurement due to insufficient rain during the kuruvai season, we expect the procurement to reach last year’s level in the delta districts during the samba season, especially after the release of water from Mettur reservoir now,” he said.
Conceding the demand from farmers at the meeting, he said DPCs would function on Sundays and the procurement limit in DPCs would be increased to 1,000 bags a day. Wherever required, the procurement limit would be raised to 2,000 bags by deploying additional winnowing machines. Steps would be taken to move the procured paddy to rice mills within 48 hours, Mr. Sakkarapani said.
Mr. Paneerselvam said over the past two years about about 14.49 lakh farmers had been paid ₹800 crore as compensation for crop losses on about 10 lakh hectares caused by natural calamities in the State.
K. Gopal, Additional Chief Secretary, Cooperation, Food and Consumer Protection; Apoorva, Agriculture Production Commissioner; B. Murugesh, Director of Agriculture; A. Annadurai, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC); and Deepak Jacob, Collector, Thanjavur, participated in the meeting.
Mr. Sakkarapani later inspected a TNCSC godown at Pillaiyarpatti, a DPC at Marungulam and a ration shop near the Tamil University.
