As rains lash the region, farmers who are forced to store their harvest in the open near DPCs face mounting losses.

N Ramesh, Mohamed Salahudeen

THANJAVUR/NAGAPATTINAM: A bumper paddy crop coupled with poor planning by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) and new union food ministry norms for blending fortified rice has slowed paddy procurement across the delta districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai.

As rains lash the region, farmers who are forced to store their harvest in the open near DPCs face mounting losses. Even as political leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami trade barbs, farmers remain a worried lot.

Waiting with his 500 bags of paddy harvested on nine acres, P Meikkappan of Kakkaraikkottai got a nod from the DPC in his village on Saturday for procurement of his produce.

“Of the total bags, more than 15 had sprouted due to rainwater seeping around the heap of the paddy covered with tarpaulin sheet,” said Meikkappan.

V Manimaran of Sethurayankudikadu lost 20 out of 100 bags of paddy due to rain in a two-week-long wait. “Till Saturday I did not get the token to sell the paddy,” he lamented.

Besides the loss of produce, farmers also had to pay for upkeep of paddy by employing at least three labourers a day. “The loss due to the wait and resulting damage due to rain will be around one-fifth of the revenue I had expected,” said Meikappan.With the timely release of water from Mettur, kuruvai crop was raised in 2.28 lakh hectares in the four delta districts this year,. This is the highest coverage in the last 60 years and around 60% jump compared to last year.

Subsequently, production touched a new high with around 5.67 lakh tonnes of paddy procured till October 24, compared with 2.08 lakh tonnes during the same period last year in the kharif marketing season (which commences on September 1).

P S Masilamani, state general secretary of TN farmers association, said though the state food department knew for three months since the sowing of kuruvai about the increase in coverage, no preparations were made for additional storage space and the movement of procured paddy which resulted in glut at the DPCs. “Subsequent rains played a spoilsport by drenching the procured paddy and inundated fields with standing crop,” Masilamani added.

Talking to reporters in Thanjavur recently, Food Minister R Sakkarapani said, “The union government is yet to approve fortified rice to be blended by the companies, as per the new specimen sent. Due to this, we could not hull the paddy procured. This led to subsequent delays in movement from warehouses to mills and in procurement.”

The process for mixing for the fortified rice also added to the issue, rice mill owners said. “The non-availability of fortified rice kernels to mix in a 1:100 ratio in the hulled rice is also a reason for the glut of bags,” a rice mill owner who is also a hulling agent of TNCSC said, exuding hope that they would receive kernels soon. It may be noted that FCI started inspecting the quality of kernels with a supplier in Namakkal only on Saturday.

“Hulling agents across the state have a capacity to hull 11 lakhs tonnes per month. However, we are hulling only around 4-5 lakh tonnes as there is shortage of storage space with TNCSC for the hulled rice,” an agent said citing the long wait of their rice-laden trucks at TNCSC warehouses. He also added that the paddy now being supplied by TNCSC has up to 23% moisture than the prescribed 17% resulting in reduced rice quantity.

A DPC staff said sometimes paddy with more moisture content is being procured from farmers.

T Govindaraj, treasurer of TNCSC workers union (AITUC), said there was no proper planning on the part of TNCSC.

“Three years ago, the administration decided to close all the cover and plinth (CAP) storage points across the state. In Thanjavur district alone, 13 CAP points have been closed which is one of the main causes of the present glut of paddy bags in DPCs,” Govindaraj said. If these CAP storages were opened at the start of the season, the situation could have been managed, he added.

While closing the CAP storages, the TNCSC reasoned that those were open facilities and hence to be replaced with covered sheds with galvalume sheet roofing. Though such sheds were constructed, they did not completely replace the capacity of the erstwhile CAP storage points, said Govindaraj.

Recently, three CAP storage points were reopened in Thanjavur district but there was a dearth of loadmen. “The loadmen working in CAP points migrated to Tiruppur and Kerala. We don’t have experienced loadmen like them,” he added.

In Nagappattinam, four loadmen and two others shifted the winnowing machine from Srirangudipuliyur DPC to an open area nearby as there was insufficient space to carry out procurement operations or store paddy sacks.

The shortage of storage space stems from two main issues: delay in transporting procured paddy from DPCs to storage godowns and the inadequate number of loadmen at the centres.

Speaking to TNIE, an official overseeing the Srirangudipuliyur DPC admitted that only about 500 paddy bags are stored and dispatched each day, even though the administration claims that 1,000 bags are procured and moved. Farmers also flagged poor road infrastructure leading to most DPCs in remote villages. “The lorry transporting paddy takes a long time to reach here and makes only one trip a day or once in two days,” said Ramalingam (55) from Puliyur.

The DPC staff also said lorry contractors demand bribes for transporting the stock from DPCs to warehouses. “The centralised statewide contract for lorries also posed a problem as the district-level officials could not force the truck operators to move the paddy quickly,” the staff added.

Published Date: October 27, 2025