Alappuzha: Private players having harvesting machines loot paddy farmers in Kuttanad every season because 63 harvesting machines bought by the Kerala Agro-Industries Corporation (KAICO) under the Kuttanad package remain idle due to improper maintenance.
The machines worth Rs 25 lakh each are currently kept ill-maintained in Punalur, Kollam district, while the farmers in Kuttanad rent machines at Rs 1,850 per hour from private parties in Tamil Nadu. Neither KAICO nor the government has taken steps to make them usable.
These eight-year-old machines were brought to Alappuzha and kept in the agriculture estate owned by the district panchayat in Mavelikara till 2014. After the district panchayat filed a case to shift the machines from its land, the KAICO took them to the premises of Ambalappuzha south panchayat office. But the panchayat authorities refused to keep them on their premises due to lack of space to park them. They were kept in the open ITI compound in Ambalappuzha for four years. A few months ago, they were shifted to Punalur where KAICO owns land.
A senior official with KAICO on condition of anonymity told DC that they had given a report to the government that only 13 machines were in working condition. The machines were kept at various places due to lack of space. “Now we have a parking area with repairing facility. A proposal will be submitted to the government to get all machines repaired by next season. We rent the machines to farmers for Rs 800 excluding handling charge and diesel expense. Though these machines were not being used, there was no complaint on shortage of machines,” he said.
The farmers say the poor condition of the machines was affecting them for years. If the government had maintained them, the farmers would have benefited, they said.
C.K. Maniyan, a farmer at Kainakary, said no farmer has direct access to the machine providers. “We get it only through agents. If we contact the owners of machines, they will not give it. There is a nexus between middlemen and private machine owners. Earlier, the machines harvested paddy in one acre within one hour, but nowadays they take at least three hours. We have never seen government machines here. If they had made them available to us, we could have saved at least Rs 500 per hour,” he said. This time the farmers of Kuttanad had cultivated puncha crops in a total of 76,000 acres--an additional 7,000 acres compared to the last season.
