Black gram farmers’ hopes dashed

​Pithapuram: The hopes of farmers who had dreamt of reaping a windfall following a bumper harvest of black gram, have crashed as the open market price for the commodity this year is less than half of last year’s market price.

In Pithapuram, Gollaprolu, Kirlampudi, Prattipadu, Jaggampeta and Yeleswaram mandal, the farmers have raised black gram in an extent of 30,000 hectares.

They preferred to raise black gram to paddy as black gram commanded more than Rs 13,000 a quintal last year. With the crashing of the market price, the farmers are not in a position to recover their investments. On an average, each farmer incurred an expenditure of Rs 25,000 an acre towards input costs. Black gram yield was very high as the crop resisted pest attack this year on account of series of crop management initiatives of the farmers.

The farmers were jubilant as the yield was in the range of five to eight bags an acre. In upland areas, farmers switched over to black gram from paddy for want of irrigation facility.

The farmers increased the area under the crop as the State government had encouraged them to go in for pulses by offering them a 50 per cent subsidy. This year, the market price prevailing is Rs 6500 a quintal as against last year’s price of Rs 13,500 per quintal. The farmers attribute it to the increased area under the crop and higher yield.

They are now demanding that the State government declare a Minimum Support Price (MSP) to black gram as it was the government which had encouraged them to switch over to pulses crops. They are hopeful of the government coming to their rescue and helping them recover their investments.