Banana price falls steeply in Kadapa

Kadapa: Farmers raising banana gardens incurred huge losses due to drastic fall of prices this year.

Due to recent heavy rains, water got stagnated under the roots of trees for several days resulting in affecting the size and quality of the fruit. As a result, the demand for the fruit has gone down.

According to the farmers, cost of a kg of banana drastically reduced to Rs 5 in the wholesale market in the current season against Rs 12 to 15 in the last season.

"I have never seen such a fall in price of bananas for the last 10 years," said K Ramachandra Naidu of Kammapalle village in Pullampet mandal speaking to The Hans India.

Banana varieties like Patcha Arati, Amruthapani and Rasalu are being grown in 40,000 acres in Rajampet, Railway Kodur and Pulivendula constituencies in the district.

At least a load of 20 lorries of bananas load is being transported to Bengaluru, Chennai, Tirupati, Gudur and Nellore areas every day. During normal days each bunch of bananas weighs 25 to 30 kg. However various factors like the crop getting hit by Albanian (Tella Tegulu) and snowfall, the weight of a bunch had gone down to 10 to 15 kg.

A farmer A Sudhakar Babu who has 20 years of experience in growing banana gardens explained that they need Rs 1 lakh to grow 1,000 trees in one acre of land. If quality bananas are grown to their actual size, they will get a profit of Rs 1 lakh per each acre.

But during this season the farmers incurred huge losses instead of gaining profits due to lack of quality in the fruit and proper size. "It has been a steep fall in price in 20 years. If such a situation continues, it will be better for us to shift to commercial crops," he says.