Srikakulam: Coconut farmers, traders in deep crisis

Srikakulam: Coconut farmers, who were expecting a bumper harvest this year in the district, are crestfallen now with the lockdown and are eagerly looking forward to the reopening of markets in the country to export their produce.

Coconut is being cultivated in 25,000 hectare in the district. In Uddanam region comprising the seven mandals of Itchapuram, Kaviti, Kanchili, Sompeta, Mandasa, Vajrapu Kothuru and Palasa, coconut is cultivated to an extent of 18,000 hectare.

Ranasthalam, Etcherla, Nandigama, Tekkali, Santhabommali and Polaki mandals too witness the crop in good quantities.

Srikakulam coconut commands a very good market in Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab and other north Indian states. Coconuts are harvested every two months. At present, the price of each coconut is Rs 12 (big size) and Rs 8 for (small size). The local traders are procuring coconuts from farmers and in turn sell it to small and petty traders and also export to other states.

In the wake of lockdown, the retail sale of coconut to the consumer is completely stopped.

As a result, the traders are not interested to procure it from farmers. Although the government had exempted transportation of coconut on par with other crops, its retail sale is a big task as people are not coming out to buy coconuts and opportunities dipped for its consumption.

"I have lost about 150 coconut trees in my three acre farm due to cyclones from 2013 to 2018 and now I have only 20 trees in my land. The government is yet to pay compensation for me under cyclone relief package. However, the local traders are not evincing interest to purchase coconuts from the remaining trees in the wake of lockdown," coconut farmer of Baruva village in Sompeta mandal, Bhuvaneswara Prasad Panigrahi said.

Farmers like Dunna Gurumurthy and Made Sarathchandrudu are of the opinion that only government's intervention would help them. D Kamesh of Kesupuram, K Sahadev of Kotari villages in Itchapuram mandal also seek government help to help them tideover this unexpected crisis.