A farmer with the harvested maize in Thoothukudi District.
| Photo Credit: N. RAJESH
Farmers associations in Thoothukudi district have urged for establishment of procurement centres for millets, citing rising labour costs and stagnant product prices over the past few years.
The northern part of the district, including Vilathikulam, Ettayapuram, Pudur and Kovilpatti regions, widely cultivate pearl millet, maize, white sorghum, green gram and black gram. The region’s black soil has the capacity to retain the moisture well, making it suitable for rainfed agriculture.
During the last rabi season, farmers cultivated the crops along with chillies, shallots and cotton. The harvesting of black gram, green gram, shallots and chillies began in the middle of January and that of maize during the last week of the month followed by other crops in succession.
However, the farmers of the region have requested the government to establish procurement centres for millets in the district, as the price of the products has remained stagnant for around six to eight years. At present, traders are directly visiting the villages to procure the products where the cost has not been increased.
The farmers say the government provides various support schemes for those engaged in cultivation of wheat, paddy and sugarcane including fixing a minimum support price (MSP). Furthermore, the Tamil Nadu government has established a Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business to help them to secure better profits. Storage and warehouses have also been built in several regions, including a warehouse in Pudur, for effective storage of products. Despite these efforts the price of the products have remained unchanged, while the production costs have increased exponentially.
Dhanapathy, a farmer from Melanambipuram, says, “When labour wages were around ₹170-₹200 per person, one quintal of maize was ₹2,200, now labour wages have increased to ₹520 per person, while a quintal of maize is only ₹2300.”
He adds that other than the cost of the product everything, including urea, labour wage and fertilizers, has increased.
Black gram was sold around ₹10,000 per quintal in 2007-2009, while it is being sold at ₹6,000 per quintal now. “The import of products from other parts of the country also plays a huge role in the current market value of the product,” he says.
A. Varadharajan, president, Karisal Farmers Association, says the price of maize still ranges between ₹2,000-₹2,300 and pearl millet between ₹2,150 and ₹2,200 per quintal. He emphasises the need for a minimum price of ₹3,000 per quintal for maize and white sorghum and ₹10,000 per quintal for black gram.
“One hundred millilitres of pesticide used for per acre for black gram costs ₹800, while spraying cost goes up to ₹1,000 per acre. Additionally a bag of urea costs ₹270,” he adds.
Traders procuring black gram are selling it at ₹160 at the market. Significant fluctuation in black gram prices is due to imports from other parts of the country. As a result, many farmers face recurrent losses, forcing them to sell their products to traders at unreasonably low prices, he adds.
The farmers have requested the government to establish procurement centres for millets in the region and implement an MSP to safeguard their produce and ensure fair pricing.
Published – February 09, 2025 08:00 pm IST