Trichy: Farmers in Mayiladuthurai blocks of Nagapattinam district who undertook early cultivation of kuruvai crop are realising to their horror that they have to sell their harvested paddy at Rs 200 less than the minimum support price (MSP) fixed by the government for a quintal. With a direct procurement centre yet to open in Mayiladuthurai, the farmers have alleged that traders have been selling the same grain to DPCs in other districts and making good profits.Farmers usually take up kuruvai cultivation in Nagapattinam district on around 80,000 acres including 62,500 acres in Mayiladuthurai division alone. This year, a large number of farmers had cultivated early kuruvai in Mayiladuthurai division using borewells. As they commenced cultivation during April and May, the crop has already been harvested in most of the taluks in the division, said the general secretary of the Federation of Farmers Associations - Cauvery Delta, Arupathy P Kalyanam.“Though the harvest is going on in full swing in Mayiladuthurai division, the district administration has not taken any initiative to open direct procurement centres (DPCs),”said Kalyanam who is also the organizer of Save Farmers-Save India Movement. The absence of procurement centres is forcing the farmers to sell their produce to traders in the open market at low prices leading to huge losses for them. Traders have been offering farmers Rs 200 lower than the MSP fixed by the government for a quintal of paddy, he added. The MSP per quintal is Rs 1,660 for A-grade variety and Rs 1,600 for the common variety.As per the earlier announcement by the government, the new MSP for paddy will come into force on September 1. Farmers have urged the state government to advance the implementation date to August 1. “Unlike Nagapattinam district, some DPCs are functioning from Tiruvarur district. The traders who purchase paddy from the farmers transport the grains to Tiruvarur and sell them at the DPCs in the district at MSP”, Kalyanam further alleged. He appealed to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation authorities to set up the required number of DPCs in Mayiladuthurai division.Officials from TNCSC in Nagapattinam district said that they were in the process of opening DPCs wherever required. A senior official from TNCSC in Nagapattinam told TOI that the samba period would end only on July 31 and the kuruvai season will commence from August 1. As the paddy harvest in Mayiladuthurai division had just commenced, they would open the required number of DPCs with the approval of the district collector, the official said.

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