Farmers: Forced to sell paddy at loss

RANIPET: The mood of farmers is turning against the state government as they have been forced to undergo losses due to the state not providing either crop insurance or opening DPCs (direct purchase centres) though the harvest of paddy in the sornavari season has ended.

With rains lashing the entire Ranipet district, farmers are woebegone as they lack the space to dry paddy. However, they would have had some relief if the government had provided insurance. “Though insurance premia amounts were collected from all farmers, who procured crop loans from PACB (Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks), banks are still holding onto the money as government was yet to fix an insurance company,” said R Subash, Tamilaga Vivasayigal Sangam youth wing state president.

Reiterating this, Sangam’s Ranipet district president CS Mani averred, “state civil supplies corporation officials repeatedly give excuses for not opening DPCs saying that only 10 per cent of the harvest was completed. Though they should have opened DPCs when they knew that harvest had begun, they check only fields abutting the main road and say there is no need to open a DPC.”

Sabari Kannan, a farmer said, “Though government raised the MSP (minimum support price) by Rs 100 for paddy procured through DPCs it is of no use to farmers as DPCs were yet to open. This makes us wonder whether the government is wantonly doing this to enable private traders to purchase paddy in the open market.”

Elaborating, Subash said, “private traders offer us Rs 1,120 or Rs 1,130 for an 80 kilo bag of paddy whereas the government rate for a 40 kilo bag is Rs 864 which amounts to Rs 1,728 for 80 kilos. Farmers for lack of space to store harvested paddy and also to meet loan commitments are now forced to sell paddy at a loss of slightly more than Rs 600 per 80 kilo bag.”

“Other than tabling a separate budget for agriculture, the government has till date done nothing for farmers. Their present anti-farmer pro-trader move will boomerang on them at the right time,” Subash added.