HYDERABAD: Venkatramulu Goud, a farmer from Vavilala village of Itikyal mandal in Jogulamba-Gadwal district took his dried red chilli produce to sell at the Mahaboob Mansion Complex (Old Malakpet Gunj) on Tuesday. Due to thrips infestation this year, his yield has come down drastically to around six quintals of medium grade and 480 quintals of low-grade (called Talu) produce.
For the former, he was being offered Rs 8,000 per quintal and for the latter, he was given Rs 3,000 per quintal. In good times, he claims he could get 30-40 quintals per acre, but since the infestation which he said had started last year, chilli farmers are facing heavy losses. He has spent Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 per acre on input costs.
Most of the dried red chilli which comes to this market is from Gadwal, Alampur, Nagarkurnool and Kurnool areas. The Gunj is the major market in Telangana for dried red chilli and onions. From here, red chilli goes to other states as well, with a majority of the exports going to Maharashtra.
Though thrips infestation has caused major losses to farmers across Telangana, AP, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other states where it is grown, interestingly, arrivals of red chilli have improved at this market since Monday, after slow arrivals observed since the beginning of the month.
Commission agents tell Express that big farmers and others usually hoard their old stock and release it when the supply is less and the price is high, which balances out the demand and supply dynamics in the market. Due to such arrivals, the farmers affected this year are getting low prices for their quality-hit produce.
M Damodar, Selection Grade Secretary at the market tells Express, that the price of Teja 273 and 341 varieties varied between Rs 12,000 and Rs 16,000, with the model price being Rs 14,000 per quintal. It was between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 last year on Dec 21, with model price being Rs 12,000. While the total arrivals till December 21 last year were 11,792 quintals, this month by Tuesday it was 10,255 quintals.
Farmers like Venkatramulu say that this was the best harvest he could get and that only the low-grade yield remaining to be harvested next month was left in the fields. However, market officials claim that farmers will continue to harvest till Jan and Feb when more arrivals could be expected.
The retail price of red chilli was Rs 220 per kg in the market, a significant jump from Rs 150 per kg last year — which points to low production this year.