Tamil Nadu

Good yield of kuruvai paddy in Nagapattinam

NAGAPATTINAM: Farmers in the delta region of the district had reaped a good yield of an average six tonnes of paddy per hectare from the early planted short-term kuruvai paddy crop raised in about 25,000 hectares in the Cauvery division command belt of Mayiladuturai belt covering Sirkazhi, Mayiladuturai, Tarangampadi, Kuthalam and Sembanarkovil blocks. Harvest of kuruvai paddy is almost over in the belt except in a few thousand hectares.

A senior official of the Agriculture department told The Hindu on Sunday that the kuruvai paddy crop was raised in the normal area of 35,000 hectares in the district of which about 27,000 hectares was cultivated in Mayiladuturai region well in advance with the help of pumpsets taking advantage of the groundwater potential before the release of Mettur water on the scheduled date of June 12.

However, farmers depending only on surface water irrigation in Vennar river command area of Nagapattinam, Kilvelur and Vedaranyam taluks had cultivated the kuruvai crop in about 10,000 hectares.

The crop will come up for harvest by the end of next month.

These farmers would also get good yield if the crops were not affected by the northeast monsoon rains.

Widespread moderate rains in various parts of the district 10 days ago in Nagapattinam, Kilvelur and Talainayar blocks came as a boon for transplanting the kuruvai paddy crop.

The rains had affected the harvest of early planted kuruvai crop in Mayiladuturai belt. However, Agriculture department officials said that the rains were by and large beneficial to the standing kuruvai paddy crop and also for raising nurseries for the samba paddy crop to be cultivated in about 1.02 lakh hectares this year in the district.

The Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation has opened 84 direct purchase centres (DPCs) so far in various parts of the district to procure paddy and has decided to open more DPCs depending on the requirement of farmers.

P. Moorthy, Senior Regional Manager of TNCSC, Nagapattinam, told that the farmers in Mayiladuturai region had been selling their kuruvai paddy at the DPCs.

He pointed out that the TNCSC was making immediate payment to the farmers.

The TNCSC had procured about 16,000 tonnes of kuruvai paddy so far and offering a price of Rs.1,050 including incentive per quintal for Grade A paddy variety and Rs.1,000 per quintal for common variety for paddy with moisture content up to 17 per cent at its DPCs as per the decentralized procurement system of the Centre.

The TNCSC expects peak procurement by end of this month, he said.

Meanwhile, the district administration had instructed the primary agricultural co-operative banks (PACBs) and commercial banks to disburse crop loan to eligible farmers without delay.

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