Tamil Nadu government Monday urged the Centre to allow the state's poultry farmers import maize without any duty, citing a 'crisis' of its non-availability after the crop was hit by a worm attack in several southern states.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the price of maize had 'sky-rocketed' after its production was severely hampered due to the "Fall Army Worm" attack in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Karnataka.
The poultry farmers had been put to "a great hardship in sourcing maize for poultry feed" and hence have sought permission to import it at zero per cent duty, he said in the letter, a copy of which was released to media here.
Maize needed to be imported to check its price and also to prevent increase in the cost of production and selling price of eggs and poultry meat, he said.
Palaniswami also said he had been informed that the Centre has imported one lakh tonnes of maize to be distributed across the country but added it might not address the supply and demand gap as Tamil Nadu required 10 lakh tonnes for next five months.
"In this context, poultry farmers themselves may be permitted to import maize to tide over the present crisis of non-availability of maize. The import duty levied for such imports may also be waived as a special case," he said.
Tamil Nadu is a major poultry producing state with the Namakkal belt in western part being a hub for eggs.
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