Farmers becoming anxious as mill owners are not taking grains

ALAPPUZHA: 8000 metric tonnes of rice grains are heaped in paddy fields in Kuttanadu. This is because even after twenty-one days, the harvested rice grain is not taken for storage. As the mill owners haven’t arrived to take the grains, the farmers of Kuttanadu are standing guard where the harvested crop is stored near the paddy fields.

As the rains are getting heavy, there is fear that the rice grains on paddy fields will sprout.

The farmers are demanding that the grains must be stored by the Civil Supplies Corporation because five ministerial-level talks with mill owners have not been successful. The last time 30 mill owners agreed to store but this time only two mill owners came forward.

The harvest was over in paddy fields of less than 300 acres. Once the harvest of 20 paddy fields with a huge area completes within two days, the situation will get more difficult. If the rainwater gets higher, the efforts of thousands of farmers will go to waste.

As the storage was getting delayed, the farmers staged a protest by laying rice grains on the roads.

According to Central Government rule, when mills take one quintal of rice grains, 68 kg of it must be given to the Civil Supplies Corporation. In Kerala this 64 kg.

When the High Court ordered that 68 kg must be given, the mill owners went on strike. The government was not able to settle the issue. The mill owners are saying that the government has not taken a favorable stand on GST and the loss due to floods.