Procurement of paneer karumbu by the State government for Pongal distribution from farmers in Melur belt began on January 6. With 837 acres in Madurai district under panner karumbu cultivation, contractors have started loading consignments for cooperative societies in other districts.
In villages such as Surappatti, Thaniamangalam and Valayapatti in Melur block, there is a frenzy of activity in the sugarcane fields. Workers are busy cutting canes, bundling them up and loading them onto the waiting trucks.
Farmers in the belt are happy that the government has retained the last year’s price of ₹33 a piece as the maximum price. But a few persons including K. Kumar, a farmer from Navinipatti, says that this year the sugarcane has not reached the expected height of six feet and above. “Even the space between the nodes is less,” he says. The farmers in the region blame it on the poor monsoonal rain and also the late release of water in the channel.
