No Onam relief yet for paddy farmers as Rs 264 crore remains unpaid

ALAPPUZHA: Paddy farmers in Alappuzha are being forced to borrow money not only to continue cultivation but also to celebrate Onam as payments for paddy procured from them remain pending. Despite efforts by Supplyco to transfer the money directly to farmers’ bank accounts ahead of Onam, Rs 264 crore is still due.

Amid heavy crop losses caused by rain, farmers are struggling to find money even to maintain their first crop. The UDF government had promised to ensure a revolving fund for paddy procurement, but even after completing 100 days in office, it has not been able to clear the payment for paddy from the previous season.

The government had announced that paddy payments would be made available to farmers ahead of Onam. It had also claimed that Rs 96 crore was directly transferred to the accounts of 13,057 farmers on Monday. However, most of them have not received the money. A total of 18,978 farmers are still awaiting payment.

Paddy payments are made through PRS loans arranged through a banking consortium. As it was assessed that most farmers on the PRS loan list would not receive the money before Onam through this system, an attempt was made to transfer the amount directly into their bank accounts.

Supplyco unable to transfer funds

Officials said Supplyco was unable to directly transfer the money into the accounts of farmers whose loan processing had already begun as per their PRS receipts.

An attempt was made to make the payments by transferring the state government’s incentive bonus and the Centre’s minimum support price component to Supplyco. However, the amount has to be used to repay previous loans to the consortium banks, after which the banks can sanction the corresponding amount as loans to farmers on the PRS list.

Supplyco said the money would reach the farmers only after Onam because of the bank holidays.

For the 2026-27 paddy procurement season, Supplyco procured 5.87 lakh metric tonnes of paddy from 32,035 farmers. The total amount involved was Rs 1,768.05 crore, comprising Rs 1,390.61 crore as the Centre’s share, Rs 370.40 crore as the State’s share and Rs 7.04 crore as the incentive bonus. Of this, Rs 264.26 crore remains pending.

“Farmers are being ignored. Denying them the right to celebrate Onam cannot be accepted,” said Sonichan Pulinkunnu, of Voice for Greater Kuttanad Farmers’ Collective.