TIRUNELVELI: Nearly 3,000 kg of okra (lady’s finger), mostly from villages of Manur Taluk in Tirunelveli district, were dumped on roadsides, left to rot in fields or were allowed to be devoured by cattle over the past few days as prices crashed to `2 per kg in Tirunelveli vegetable market on Thursday and Friday.
Hundreds of farmers, mainly from Pallamadai, Pillaiyarkulam, Rastha and Barathiyapuram in Tirunelveli district and Vellapaneri and its surrounding areas in Thoothukudi district, who cultivated the crop on nearly 150 acres, are now left with nothing but heaps of worthless veggies and mounting losses.
K Sekar, a farmer and truck owner, who brought his produce from Pallamadai to Tirunelveli town, a distance of 25km, for sale on Friday, dumped it on the roadside on the outskirts of Tirunelveli city after he came to know the price being offered at the market. The video of the distraught farmer dumping 500kg of okra on road went viral on social media. “It costs at least Rs 1 per kg to just transport the vegetable from our farm to the market but we get just Rs 2 per kg at the market,” Sekar said.
It costs Rs 30,000 to Rs 44,000 per acre to cultivate the 50-day crop, said K Palraj, another farmer of Pallamadai. “I spent Rs 21,000 per acre for hybrid seeds. For ploughing the field and fertilizer, I spent Rs 4,500 and Rs 2,000, respectively. To remove weeds, it cost me Rs 5,000. Pesticide cost was Rs 6,500 per acre,” he added.
Another farmer said to pluck 200kg of okra in his farm, he had to pay Rs 1,500 to five women workers. “The cost of a plain sack is Rs 40. We must also pay Rs 10 for each sack of okra as loading charge.”
‘Okra prices will increase in 2-3 days’
After all this, we don’t even get Rs 200 profit when we sell our produce in the market. “The price of one kg of okra was Rs. 50 to Rs.60 last year. As there was not enough rainfall in the district this year, several farmers moved from paddy to vegetable cultivation. This led to a glut in the supply of vegetables such as okra in markets and prices crashed.
Also, traders fix prices in an unfair manner. The state and union governments should take steps to fix a fair price for our produce. Some people suggest farmers can store and sell their produce as value-added products. But we lack infrastructure and we don’t have the means to store our produce for days together,” Palraj said. Talking about the price in the Tirunelveli market, J Ponraj, a trader, said he could sell one kg of okra for just Rs 4 to Kerala and Tamil Nadu wholesale buyers.
“We could purchase okra from farmers for only Rs 2 or Rs 3 per kg. Whenever supply is more than demand, price fall cannot be avoided,” he said. A retailer in Tirunelveli said shopkeepers have been purchasing a kg of okra from the market for Rs 8 for the past two days. The Tirunelveli Uzhavar Santhai is selling the vegetable for Rs 15 per kg to consumers this week.
Retailers in Thoothukudi were selling it for Rs 24 per kg on Friday. The price was Rs 16 in Alangulam in Tenkasi. The price of tomato too has crashed to Rs 5 per kg in the Tirunelveli market, forcing farmers to turn it into a cattle feed. “If only opposition parties had supported the path-breaking farm laws, our farmers would have been able to sell their produce instead of dumping them.
But incompetent dynasts and tinpot dictators sacrificed the interests of our ‘Annadatas’ for cheap politics,” BJP national general secretary C T Ravi said in reply to a tweet of this reporter on the dumping of okra. Speaking to The New Indian Express, Muruganantham, joint director of the agriculture department, said farmers can sell okra directly to consumers in uzhavar santhai and earn better profits.
“Farmers can also approach the horticulture department to arrange buyers on a contractual basis,” he added. Balakrishnan, deputy director of the horticulture department, said okra prices will increase in two or three days. “The crop is being cultivated on 40 to 50 hectares in Tirunelveli. Farmers can store vegetables for a few days by dehydrating them. But dehydrating okra crop is difficult,” he said.
Mkt price Rs 2/kg, transport cost Rs 1/kg
It costs at least Rs 1 per kg to just transport the vegetable from the farm to the market but farmers get just Rs 2 per kg at the market. “The cost of cultivation of the 50-day crop is Rs 30,000 to Rs 44,000 per acre,” Tirunelveli farmers said.