Plea to deploy portable paddy dryers at DPCs

With the problem of harvested `kuruvai’ paddy getting exposed to the vagaries of nature cropping up, farmers in the delta region farmers have pleaded for use of portable paddy dryers at the direct pur

With the problem of harvested `kuruvai’ paddy getting exposed to the vagaries of nature cropping up, farmers in the delta region farmers have pleaded for use of portable paddy dryers at the direct purchase centres. As the ‘kuruvai’ season is coming to a close with the harvesting of paddy picking up in the areas where the crop had been cultivated and the produce being brought to the DPCs, the farmers are being bogged down by the problem of the moisture content percentage in the paddy shooting up due to sporadic rain or the overnight chill weather conditions. At the same time, farmers alleged, the delay in the opening of DPCs at some of the revenue villages, where such a facility was offered during last season, had also compounded the problem. While the allegation of non-opening of DPCs was outrightly denied by the officials who pointed out that the DPCs were being opened in the revenue villages on the request from farmers, the latter have pleaded that deployment of tractor-operated portable paddy dryers at the DPCs would help them measure the paddy at the prescribed moisture content percentage. Claiming that deployment of tractor-operated portable dryers at some of the DPCs during the fag end of the last paddy season in Thanjavur district at the prompting of some progressive farmers resulted in the paddy measured at the prescribed moisture content level, the general secretary, Federation of Farmers Associations in Delta Districts, Arupathi P.Kalyanam exhorted the government to deploy adequate numbers of portable dryers in the delta districts during this season either through the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation or through the Agriculture Engineering Department.