Ramadoss, the founder of BAMA, said that the government should take steps to correct the shortage of paddy procurement in Tamil Nadu.
In a statement issued by him in this regard, “The quantity of paddy procured by the Consumer Goods Trading Corporation in Tamil Nadu has decreased by nearly 10 lakh tonnes in the current year as compared to last year. In Tamil Nadu, where most of the people depend on agriculture as their source of income, the fact that the purchase of paddy has decreased by more than one-fourth cannot be easily overlooked. The Tamil Nadu government should find out the reasons for this and take steps to correct them.
In the year 2021-22, 43.27 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured in Tamil Nadu. In the year 2022-23, 37 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured during the period till 15th of May. During the same period of the current year, only 27.61 lakh tonnes of paddy has been procured from 3.71 lakh farmers. 44.22 lakh tonnes of paddy was procured last year. Even though the current procurement year is till August, there is no possibility of large procurement of paddy in the coming months. There is no chance of even approaching the paddy procurement levels of the last two years. The decline in paddy procurement is a cause for concern.
In 2023-24, the target was set to procure a total of 50 lakh tonnes of paddy. It is true that the government will not be able to achieve even 60 percent of the target by the end of August. Compared to the last few years, the irrigated area has decreased significantly as Karnataka has not released water from the Cauvery this year. But this alone cannot be attributed to the decrease in paddy procurement. The only demand of the farmers is to provide a purchase price of at least Rs.3000 per quintal of paddy. However, along with the purchase price set by the central government, the Tamil Nadu government is offering only Rs.2310 for fine rice and Rs.2265 for normal rice with an incentive of Rs.100 and Rs.75 respectively.
At this price, farmers have to wait for several days at procurement stations to sell paddy. Apart from that, they have to give a subsidy of up to Rs.60 per bundle to the staff of the procurement station. At the same time, in the current year, private paddy merchants offered purchase prices ranging from Rs.2500 to Rs.2700 per quintal and went to farmers’ fields to purchase paddy. Therefore, as the farmers got more money in hand, most of the farmers sold the paddy to private individuals. This is the main reason for the reduction in the government’s paddy procurement. Tamilnadu government should realize this. If the amount of paddy purchase by the government is reduced, the incentive will be less for the government. The government should not be complacent about it.
If the same situation continues, there will be a situation where Tamil Nadu Government will not have enough rice to supply the fair price shops through the Public Distribution Scheme. As a result, the price of rice in the open market will increase drastically. Poor people will not be able to buy rice. It poses a major threat to food security. Realizing this, what are the reasons for the decrease in the purchase of paddy in Tamil Nadu? The government should investigate and remove the defects. As a first step, I urge the Tamil Nadu government to raise the purchase price of paddy to Rs.3000 per quintal, and if the farmers go to the direct paddy purchase stations, they should immediately sell the bundles of paddy and get the money. mentioned
