TIRUCHY: The makers of Tamil Nadu famous Ayyampettai mould jaggery (achu vellam) are experiencing a bitter Pongal this time as their livelihood has been affected due to various factors, and the government has failed to support them and fulfil their long-pending demands.
The villages Iluppaikorai, Ganapathi Agraharam, Manalur, Veeramangudi, Someswaram, Devagudi, Pattukudi, Ullikadai and Mahalipuram in Ayyampettai are famous for making jaggery for generations and they supply the moulded jaggery and ball jaggery across the state.
There are around 300 units making jaggery in the villages around Ayyampettai, and they are not only sent across the state but also sold in Kerala and Karnataka.
However, as every traditional business has a negative impact in due course of time, the jaggery makers too have faced hard times. They claimed that the sugarcane yield had been affected for the past 10 years due to various factors, including pest attack.
“We approached the officials to find a solution for the diseases in sugarcane crops but our voices went unheard by the officials. We also staged a series of protests but still, the officials failed to attend to our demands,” said D Manoharan, a sugarcane farmer from Ganapathy Agraharam.
“Once cultivated in around 6,000 acres in Ayyampettai, it has come down to 300 acres now,” he said.
Meanwhile, as a chain reaction, the jaggery making too was affected in the region and also impacted livelihood.
Since jaggery makers lost business, Mysore jaggery has taken over the Kerala market
Manoharan
Sensing a decline, the producers have demanded to distribute jaggery in the PDS outlets.
“We have been demanding this for several years, but the government failed to fulfil the demands so far, which affected the livelihood of the jaggery makers,” said Sambantham, a sugarcane farmer from Ayyampettai. “We will have a bitter Pongal, this time also,” added Sambantham.