On the request of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC), the State procurement agency under the decentralised procurement scheme, the Center had granted permission for relaxing standards on moisture content for paddy procurement in similar circumstances in the past, including the most recent Kuruvai season.
Following unusually heavy rains, one lakh hectares of paddy crops that were ready for harvest in the Cauvery delta region have been submerged. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of this on Sunday and urged him to relax paddy procurement regulations, including those relating to moisture content.
According to the state government's preliminary assessment, significant unseasonal rains in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, and Pudukkottai districts have submerged the standing crop covering one lakh hectares this month, Stalin wrote in a letter to Modi. Samba is a perennial crop that serves as the main source of income for farmers in the Cauvery delta region. Kuruvai is a crop with a short lifespan.
The moisture content in the harvested grain "is likely to be significantly higher due to the exposure to severe rains," despite the fact that every attempt is being made to drain the water. According to the Chief Minister, relaxations in procurement regulations are necessary as a mitigating strategy due to the unusually high rain.
On the request of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC), the State procurement agency under the decentralised procurement scheme, the Center had granted permission for relaxing standards on moisture content for paddy procurement in similar circumstances in the past, including the most recent Kuruvai season. According to the Chief Minister, the current circumstance brought on by this spate of unseasonal rains called for a similar relaxation now in order to smoothly complete the procurement.
Therefore, Stalin asked Modi to give the necessary instructions to allow the TNCSC to buy paddy from farmers with moisture contents up to 22% and to relax the minimum limits of immature, shrunken & shrivelled up to 5% (as opposed to 3%) and damaged, discoloured and sprouted up to 7% (as opposed to 5%) with necessary value cuts for this Samba crop as well.
The Chief Minister had earlier promised that suitable action will be taken to help farmers in the Cauvery delta region after considering suggestions from a group of ministers and officials who looked into crop losses brought on by unseasonal rainfall.
P R Pandian, the president of the coordination committee for Tamil Nadu's All Farmers Associations, visited the Cauvery delta region's damaged paddy fields on February 3 and asked the state government to make sure compensation was given in line with the losses. According to the farmers' representative, the unseasonal downpour had destroyed about five lakh acres of paddy that was ready for harvest.
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