Karnataka - Bellary   

Chilli prices crash, farmers in distress Chilli prices crash, farmers in distress

Staff Correspondent

Govt. urged to intervene in market, procure crop

CROP OF WOE: Chilli growers have been severely affected owing to the crash in the price of the commodity

BELLARY: Chilli growers in the district have been robbed of the joy of harvesting a bumper crop by the unusual crash in the price of the commodity.

The yield had gone up considerably this year while prices crumbled to less than half the price of previous years, causing heavy losses to the chilli growers.

Chilli, which was once grown by farmers for household use, has now become a major commercial crop in the district. This year it was cultivated in around 60,000 acres of which a large area is in Bellary, Sirguppa, and Hospet taluks. The crop covers vast tracts of land in the irrigated regions of the district and in pockets of other taluks served by irrigation pumpsets.

Varieties

As the crop used to fetch a good price, a majority of the farmers in the region decided to cultivate chilli. Byadagi and Guntur are the two popular varieties of the crop grown in the area. The yield of Byadagi is around 10 quintals an acre and that of Guntur is around 15 to 20 quintals an acre.

Since there was good rainfall during the monsoon, the chilli yield in dry-land areas of neighbouring districts such as Gadag and Dharwad was also good. This resulted in a large quantity of the crop flooding the market and causing an instant fall in its price.

To sell or not

Chilli growers seem to be caught between the devil and the deep sea. If they decide to dispose of the chilli crop at the prevailing market price, they will barely break even, as the cost of cultivation is high, about Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 35,000 an acre.

On the other hand, if they delay selling the produce there are chances that the harvested crop, which is stored in the open, will get wet in the pre-monsoon showers. If that happens, they will lose the entire crop. There are not enough cold storages (only around 10 cold storages are functioning) to store the crop and protect the colour and quality of chilli.

Support price

The president of the Bellary taluk Panchayat, Inath Reddy, is among the farmers who have been urging the Government to help the chilli growers. Mr. Reddy has demanded that the Government immediately announce a support price for chilli and arrange to procure the commodity at specified centres.

A delegation of farmers and chilli growers from the district recently met the Minister for Revenue and in charge of the district, M.P. Prakash, and urged him to take steps to intervene in the market and start procuring the crop immediately.

In response, Mr. Prakash promised to lead a delegation of elected representatives from the district to the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, and the Minister for Agriculture, K. Srinivasa Gowda, and urge them to start purchasing chilli and arrange to release money from the corpus fund for the same.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements | Entertainment |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

Chilli prices crash, farmers in distress Chilli prices crash, farmers in distress

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu