In a bid to address the concerns of the paddy farmers and prevent them from exploitation of rice mills during the paddy procurement process, Kerala Cooperation Minister V N Vasavan recently laid the foundation stone for setting up a modern rice mill in Kottayam district.
It is being set up by the Kerala Paddy Procurement Processing and Marketing Cooperative Society (KAPCOS) with a cost of around Rs 80 crore and the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) is looking after the construction part.
The aim is to protect and save the Kuttanad region paddy farmers from exploitation. Godown and a modern mill will be established on 10 acres of land. The project includes rice storage warehouse and humidity control technology, among others. The target is to complete construction and start production of 50,000 metric tons within a year.
During the laying of foundation stone, Kerala Cooperation Minister VN Vasavan said, “The KAPCOS modern rice mill will help the paddy farmers in a big way, who are presently being exploited by the mill owners.
“The project includes establishment of a godown for the storage of Paddy and mill unit for the production of value added products on a 10 acre land purchased by KAPCOS at Kottayam”, he added.
Vasavan said, “The co-operative sector is opening endless possibilities in the field of industry. The co-operative sector is penetrating into all sectors. The co-operative sector works with social responsibility and not just for profit.
On the occasion, KAPCOS Chairman K M Radhakrishnan, MP Thomas Chazhikadan, Cooperation Secretary Mini Antony, Registrar of Cooperative Societies T V Subhash, K V Bindu, Nabard CGM G Gopakumarannayar, K J Anil Kumar and others were present.
According to the Paddy statistics in 2021-22, the total area of paddy cultivation in Kerala was more than 2 lakh hectares and the total paddy production in Kerala is around Rs 6.33 lakh tonne.
KAPCOS is headquartered at Kottayam and its activities include paddy procurement, storage, processing and branding of rice and rice related products.