TIRUCHY: Banana farmers are continuing to bear the brunt of declining prices over the past three consecutive seasons.
The Agricultural Marketing department has been encouraging farmers to bring their crops to Thiruchenthurai regulatory market for auction and assured them of fair returns. But farmers are not convinced and have stayed away.
A glut has brought down the prices of Nendran and Poovan varieties in the sharply. The price of Poovan flooded plunged to Rs 20 per bunch. With Kerala, a major market for Nendran, buying from other districts, farmers in Tiruchy sold it for Rs 13 per kg last year. This year, it has come down to Rs 5 to Rs 10 per kg.
Thiruchenthurai regulatory market is being largely ignored by farmers. The integrated banana marketing centre with a 1,000-metric tonne storage facility was established in 2014. It is exclusively for storing and auctioning banana bunches brought by local farmers every Tuesday. Though the Agricultural Marketing department has assured it would bring buyers to the market for auctions, even this has failed to spark interest among farmers.
Speaking to TNIE, Sugumar, a senior Agricultural Marketing department official in Tiruchy, said, "Cotton farmers benefitted from the Thuraiyur regulatory market and Rs 7.9 crore worth of cotton was sold this year. Similarly, the department should help banana farmers by bringing traders from across the State which could help them get a decent price."
He said over the past one-and-a-half years, the market has been unable to operate to its potential due to minimal arrivals of bananas. He assured the department is prepared to operate auctions at the market regularly if farmers are willing to bring their crops to the market. He said that over some machinery issues the processing centre inauguration was slightly delayed. However, once the snags are ironed out, all primary processing centres would be open to farmers. This would help them export their bananas.
Periyaiah, a farmer from Lalgudi, stated transportation has been a major issue. He said it just adds to the high costs already incurred on cultivation. He stated private traders come to the banana plantations, saving on transportation costs. In addition, the processing centre is located at a distance away from plantations, another reason farmers prefer working with private traders.