An action plan to open 4,076 direct purchase centres has been prepared to reduce the waiting time of farmers for selling their paddy during the samba procurement season, according to Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, M.R.K. Panneerselvam.
Participating in the tripartite meeting of policy makers, officials and farmers from Tiruchi, Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Pudukottai and delta districts to discuss and evolve the strategies for smooth procurement of samba paddy, the Minister said necessary efforts had been initiated to procure jute bags from the Cooperatives in addition to 4.40 crore jute bags available in the districts and another 2.60 crore jute bags to be delivered by Jute Corporation of India.
Instructions had been issued to procure jute threads locally, if needed, though sufficient quantity of 7.20 lakh kg of jute threads were available with Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation, Mr. Panneerselvam said.
Claiming that a total of 8,056 seasonal workers were available at the disposal of TNCSC, the Minister said instructions had been issued for recruitment of seasonal workers directly, or by engaging retired seasonal workers or ex-servicemen, if necessary. A total of 14.83 lakh tonnes of paddy had been procured so far during the current procurement season that commenced on September 1.
Mr. Paneerselvam said the DMK government’s “2021 Tholainokuku Tittam” (Vision Plan) objective of providing ₹2,500 per quintal as purchase price for paddy procured from farmers had been achieved. In 2021, the DMK government had announced that paddy would be purchased from farmers at a price of 2,500 per quintal.
The announcement became a reality this season (2025-26 season) with the Tamil Nadu government adding â‚ą156 per quintal as incentive to the minimum support price (MSP) of â‚ą2,389 per quintal for fine variety paddy announced by the Union government and â‚ą131 per quintal as incentive for the common variety paddy for which the Union government had declared â‚ą2,369 as the MSP, taking the total purchase price of common variety paddy to â‚ą2,500 per quintal, he added.
Later, talking to the media, Food Minister R. Sakkarapani said that steps had been initiated for regularising the services of 1,400 temporary employees of TNCSC.
Ministers, including K. N. Nehru, MPs, MLAs and State-level and District-level officials participated in the meeting, said a press release.
Published – December 29, 2025 06:52 pm IST
