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Ongole: Lockdown extension talk spooks farmers
- Many horticulture farmers are leaving their guava, lemon, papaya and mango crops on trees owing to lack of labour, transport and price Prakasam district is one of important horticulture hubs in the State from where various fruits are exported to Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka and other States
- Due to lockdown, prices have fallen steeply, forcing farmers to keep the fruits on trees as they can't even recover the labour costs from their sale
Ongole: The horticulture farmers who pinned all their hopes on mango, guava, lemon, papaya, pomegranate, and other crops are deeply worried as political leaders demand extension of lockdown. The farmers are horrified by the prospect of extended lockdown as there are already facing shortage of labour, lack of transport to market and a better price for the fruit.
Prakasam district is known for sweet lime (bathhayi), lemon, papaya, mango, guava and other fruits being cultivated in thousands of acre. Most of these fruits will be exported to other states like Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. The coronavirus pandemic has stalled the picking and transport of the fruits and the farmers are worried over the impending losses.
The farmers of sweet lime have a little relief as they had already sent the first crop to markets, but the farmers of lemon and papaya are in deep trouble and they left the fruit on the trees themselves fearing costs of picking them.
Mallipeddi Ravi, a lemon and papaya farmer from Yerragondaplaem, told The Hans India that a bag of lemon was sold at Rs 2,800 last year, but due to non-availability of transport, the local merchants offered only Rs 300 a bag now.
The papaya was sold at Rs 32,000 a tonne last year but is offered only Rs 3,500 now. Ravi said that he left the crop on trees, as he thought that he would not even get the the labour costs. He said that if the government decides to continue the lockdown, there will be no earnings in the season and they have to suffer a loss of Rs 1 lakh per acre.
Most of the mango and guava orchards are just entering the perfect stage of ripening to be harvested. The farmers are desperately urging the government to announce an exit plan for the lockdown. Rachagalla Harikrishna took seven acre mango orchard at Ulavapadu for a lease of Rs 6 lakh for this season. He is discussing the probability of lockdown extension and the plans to sell the fruit with the fellow farmers when The Hans India met him.
He said that the fruits would be ready for export to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu immediately after the end of lockdown by April 14. "If the lockdown is extended, I will face losses as the price will fall in the local market and there are no storage facilities for us," he said.
Similar is the case with Pondugala Satyakameswara Reddy of Sanikavaram in Peddaraveedu mandal. He is a guava farmer, who invested more than Rs 2 lakh on the crop and is expecting to harvest it in a couple of days. He said that the price of guava is Rs 30 per kg before the announcement of lockdown, but the price has dropped to Rs 10 and 15 now. He is worried that if the lockdown is extended, he cannot send the crop to the market and cover even the costs.
