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.”
