With the monsoon taking a break, farmers in Tiruvallur district are busy harvesting paddy from the Samba season on one side and on the other raising nurseries this Navara (December – March).
The planting for Samba started in August this year with 779 hectares and as the season progressed, September saw 14,836 hectares being planted, October 2,588 hectares and November 2,588 hectares. A total of 47,639 hectares would be harvested in phases from late December to February.
The preliminary meeting meant to discuss about Direct Procurement Centres (DPCs) is to be held next week for 690 revenue villages. Officials from the agriculture department, cooperative department, marketing section, revenue department, and farmers will meet to decide how many DPCs will be needed. “We are estimating 5.8 tonnes per hectare in Samba. Sornavari is our best season when we got six tonnes of paddy per hectare,” said an official.
Farmer N. Vijayakumar of Ponneri said that farmers in his area would start harvesting only in January. It would be done with green gram, which is the bund crop. “If there is a delay in opening of DPCs, some farmers who are unable to store the paddy end up selling it to traders, who in turn sell the paddy at the DPCs using the papers from the farmers. In the last one year, delays in opening have been avoided in many places thanks to farmers stepping in and working with various government departments,” he said.
According to Tiruvallur District Collector M. Prathap, the district administration is gearing up to open DPCs to serve farmers who had planted during the Samba season. Though moisture content was a bit high in the paddy procured during the last season, none was wasted. Since the quantum of harvest was estimated in advance, arrangements were made to safely store the paddy in government buildings wherever possible.
Published – December 13, 2025 11:50 pm IST
