TIRUCHY: Nendran banana cultivators in the district are faced with huge losses owing to market fluctuations, said farmers who spoke to TNIE. An overall shift towards the nendran variety due to profitable rates last year could have caused a surplus leading to a fall in price, say official sources. In Tiruchy district, nendran banana is cultivated on around 950 hectares in Anthanallur block, mainly in Kumara Vayalur and Perugamani panchayats.
"Last year, nendran banana was sold for Rs 34 per kg, but this year the price has dropped to Rs 19 per kg. We spent huge sums of money to cultivate this variety, but the returns are barely enough to cover the production costs," said M Subbiah, a farmer from Vayalur. Rajkumar B, another farmer, said, "Nendran banana is a labour-intensive crop, calling for the use of more fertilisers.
We spent up to Rs 2 lakh per acre, but the returns have only been Rs 1.5 lakh per acre, leaving us in debt." "The market for nendran banana has been highly unstable in recent years," said Rajendran N, a farmer leader from the Tamil Manila Congress.
"During Covid-19 around 2021, the price for nendran was `8 per kg. But a year later, as the market opened up, there was higher demand, as a result of which farmers began to get good rates. A large number of farmers may have opted to cultivate the nendran variety seeing this spurt in demand.
The government should equip the farmers to cultivate bananas as a value-added product for a stable market," he added. A senior official from the Horticulture Department told TNIE, "There are several factors driving the drop in prices.
In Tiruchy alone, nendran cultivation went up by 100 hectares from last year, and other districts including Coimbatore and Namakkal also increased nendran cultivation. We invite farmers to sell their produce at our regulated market, but for nendran, it has been hard to persuade buyers."