CHITTOOR: Though the Chittoor district administration requested the pulp industries to procure mangoes directly from farmers, majority of the units have not been purchasing the crop. The farmers have been facing difficulties following a drop in the prices of mangoes in mandis.
Though the farmers have been expecting a bumper harvest of seven to nine lakh mangoes per hectare, changes in climatic conditions have played spoilsport.
The Totapuri variety in Chittoor is famous and the farmers get good returns. The farmers across the Chittoor district cultivate mangoes in around 1.12 lakh hectare in this season of which Totapuri variety is cultivated in 70,000 acres.
Around 5 lakh metric tonnes of mangoes have been bought by pulp industries till now.Observing the plight of the farmers, District Collector M Harinarayanan held discussions with managements of the pulp industries for procurement of mangoes at support price from the farmers.
Expressing concern over the poor procurement of mangoes in the mandis, the Collector asked the pulp industries to purchase the crop from the farmers by providing them support price as the season comes to an end by month-end.
Normally, authorised mango pulp production units would purchase mangoes from the farmers, while some other farmers sell the fruits to traders in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. "The pulp industries purchase only table varieties, not pulp varieties. The entire Totapuri variety is procured by the pulp industries. Stern action would be taken if the farmers are exploited by the mandi traders by purchasing their crop at low prices and selling them at high prices," the Collector said.
It is time the pulp industries increases the support price in a phased manner, he observed. “Continuing his pro-farmer approach, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced support price for every crop in the state. The pulp industries must extend all possible support to the mango farmers,” Chittoor MP N Reddeppa said.