Tiruvallur farmers cart to safety, 55,000 tonnes of paddy this Navarai season

Not a single grain of the 55,000 tonnes of super-fine variety and ADT 37 paddy, procured from farmers in Tiruvallur district this Navarai season became wet. In a well-coordinated effort between farmers, officials of the Agriculture Department and Civil Supplies Corporation, the paddy was all safely moved to nearby godowns.

“We haven’t had our Sundays this past month since the procurement was taking place. The District Collector, Alby John, formed committees at the village level and one farmer was appointed for every village to coordinate with the officials. Tokens were issued to all of them and dates and places given for delivery,” explained an official of the Agriculture Department.

The district has 42 direct procurement centres, and during the last few days, some 9000-odd tonnes were moved to godowns belonging to even private millers since they had space. This is only the second year that farmers are selling to the Civil Supplies in Tiruvallur, explained farmer Seshadri. “We packed the paddy in bags but because of that we lost ₹50 per bag. The consolation was that the paddy did not get wet,” he said.

Farmers opted to supply to the Civil Supplies Department that procured on behalf of the Food Corporation of India since the Minimum Support Price is higher than what private buyers were offering this year, said a source. Due to proper coordination, the moisture content was also kept well below 17%, ensuring quality.

Ravichandran, a farmer from the Delta districts, said that there were not many godowns in the districts and the number of farmers were huge, and the quantity of paddy was much more than in Tiruvallur. “Our harvest timings are also different and is done during the rains, which is unfortunate. We cannot have an earlier season since we are dependent on Cauvery water that is opened only in August,” he said.