Harvest season set to begin in Kottayam
The Hindu
Collector holds meeting of farmer collectives and farm officials
Amidst concerns over fleecing of paddy farmers by harvester machine agents, harvesting of the ‘virippu’ crop in over 4,653.13 ha across Kottayam is slated to begin next week.
District Collector P.K. Jayasree convened a meeting of farmer collectives and officials of the Agriculture Department to review the preparations for the season. The meeting also discussed the issues raised by farmers’ representatives regarding the exorbitant rates charged by private harvester operators.
In view of the complaints, the Collector is slated to convene another round of meeting on Monday to fix the tariff of the machines in a uniform manner. She also directed the Agriculture Department to initiate advance steps to address the issues involved in completing the harvest in a time-bound manner.