Tried silk weaving and met tomato farmers in Salem. Farmers demanded cold storage and Cauvery water #namakkunaame https://t.co/hFqQ3aywKf

During the launch of the third phase of his statewide Namakku Naame campaign in Salem district in late October 2015, DMK Treasurer M. K. Stalin carried out intensive grassroots interactions with diverse agricultural and artisan communities. Visiting rural farming pockets in Mecheri and surrounding taluks, Stalin met with tomato growers who demonstrated the acute market volatility plaguing perishable vegetable cultivation. The farmers explained that during harvest gluts, prices crashed to mere pennies per kilogram, forcing them to dump produce on roadsides because the AIADMK government failed to establish promised cold storage warehouses and tomato pulp processing plants. In addition, cultivators strongly demanded that surplus water from the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur be channelled to drought-prone Salem tanks to secure groundwater recharge. Stalin also spent time sitting beside traditional silk handloom weavers, trying his hand at weaving and listening to their difficulties regarding skyrocketing silk yarn prices and lack of cooperative marketing. Stalin pledged that a future DMK administration would implement comprehensive agro-processing infrastructure, construct regional cold storage centres, and execute surplus Cauvery water irrigation lift schemes to revitalize Salem's agrarian economy and protect sustainable horticultural production.