Sago and starch manufacturers agree to open factories

Salem:Agricultural Minister Veerapandi S . Arumugam holding talks with starch and sago tapioca manufacturers and farmers in Salem on Monday.The tripartite meeting organised by the State Government under the presidentship of Agricultural Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam here on Monday has decided to sort out the issues that have been confronting the sago industry and tapioca farmers.The farmers have accepted to resume their tubers harvest, which they had suspended some 15 days ago while the manufacturers of sago and starch, whose factories remained closed for a week, have agreed to open them immediately.

The Minister, while summing up the three-hour session that brought the representatives of sago and starch industry and tapioca farmers under one roof, pointed out that he would insist on the Government to fix a price for tapioca as in the case of sugarcane and rice and also organise loans for farmers through cooperative societies.The middlemen, who hold farmers to ransom, will be sternly dealt with, he warned.He asked the manufacturers to strict to quality control norms and utilise the services of Sago Serve, a cooperative body functioning for the development of industry and for farming community. A few demands concerning with the quality guidelines and remunerative price will be sorted out.

The final decision in these issues will be taken after another round of the tripartite meeting, he said.Namakkal District Collector G. Sundaramurthy pointed out that many of the factories in his district never adhere to the rules, causing heavy environmental pollution with untreated effluent thus affecting the farm lands. Salem Collector N. Mathivanan said that Tamil Nadu was the State where the average production of tapioca was high in the world (38 tonnes per hectare). Out of total 800 sago factories in Tamil Nadu, 700 were functioning in Salem and Namakkal districts alone, he said.

Tapioca farmers said that the factory owners were not paying them the remunerative price for their produce. They claimed that the Starch-Point assessment was differing from factory-to-factory thus causing losses to them. Middlemen were controlling the trade they said and charged that the factory owners never adhered to the decisions taken at an earlier tripartite meeting.Similar to the Spices Board, a separate Board for Tapioca should be formed, they urged.Sago and starch manufacturers, however, said that they were open for any inspection with regard to the point assessment.

While accepting that a few manufacturers had been permitting the middlemen to thrive, they insisted that the Government should come to the rescue of the industry in this issue. They also claimed that stringent quality control measures of Sago Serve had caused severe hardships causing them heavy losses.Farmers including Govindarajan, G.N.Periyasamy, Krishnamurthy and C. Vaiyapuri spoke while Thangavel, T. R. Palanivel and others expressed the manufacturers’ views. Senior officials from Agricultural and Horticultural departments took part.