Summary:
more-inTribal farmers on Pachamalai Hills, many of whom are tapioca cultivators, have been forced to spend for transporting their produce to sago mills. The complex problem has an easy solution – establishment of a sago unit on the hills. Earlier this month, tribal farmers on the hills floated Pachamalai Organic Farmers Producers Company to market the crops grown by avoiding middlemen. Not less than 50 loads of tapioca are transported from the hills in ten-tonnage lorries every day to sago industries in Salem, Namakkal, Attur, and and Pappireddipatti. They have to keep shelling out money due to what they describe as the “wily designs” of middlemen who have cemented their position as conduit between sago industries and cultivators..