Centre to procure copra from TN farmers till Sept 30

Coimbatore: The Centre will continue to procure copra from Tamil Nadu farmers under the price support scheme till September 30.
The Centre has sent a communication in this regard to the managing director of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and Tamil Nadu government’s agriculture production secretary C Samayamoorthy.
The state government, elected representatives and farmers had been urging the Centre to extend the copra procurement period in Tamil Nadu since it ended for this year in July.
Farmers said they were struggling to meet expenses when the copra price fell below 10 apiece. Subsequently, the Centre came forward to procure milling copra at 105.90 a kg and ball copra at 110 a kg. “After the procurement period ended in July, we faced loses and asked the state government to help us,” famers said.
Subsequently, the state government wrote to the Union government seeking extension.
Pollachi MP K Shanmugasundaram also submitted a petition in this regard to agricultural secretary Manoj Ahuja in New Delhi on July 27.
Coimbatore south MLA Vanithi Srinivasan also met agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar a few days ago and urged him to extend the period of copra procurement in Tamil Nadu.