Drought-hit farmers seek procurement price for chilli

Due to acute shortage of rainfall, drought thousands of farmers in the southern districts have opted for dry land farming. Instead of cultivating water intensive crops such as banana, sugarcane and paddy, they have started growing onion, green gram, black gram, chilli and maize. Among the dry land crops, chilli occupy a prominent place as they require very less rain water and a small amount of dampness in the soil. 

Thousands of farmers have planted chilli in huge acres of lands in the southern districts but are now facing a grave situation of lower productivity of chillies and no proper pricing for them. Farmers claim that they have spent quite a huge amount of money but have failed to get the required quality and quantity of chilli in return and hence the government must fix procurement price for the chilli.This, they say, will guarantee fixed returns for them.

Speaking to DTNext, Manikandan, a farmer who had sown chilli at Ettayapuram Taluk in Thoothukudi district, claimed that he had sown the ‘Samba’ variety three months ago and now they are in the harvesting phase. They had applied fertilizers four times and harvesting would be done five times a week. Earlier, he said that an acre would yield 10 to 12 quintals of chilli but now, owing to the drought and scanty rainfall, the yield has drastically gone down to only 5 quintals. 

Even the price has reduced drastically. Earlier, a quintal of chilli would fetch Rs 12,000 but now due to the inferior quality of chilli, they get only Rs 7,000 per quintall, claimed Manikandan. Varadharajan, State vice-president, MDMK (Farmers Wing), claimed that farmers have spent up to Rs 20,000 per acre for chilli but now they are facing severe loss due to drought. They are yet to fetch a proper price for the chilli and farmers are reeling under severe debt. 

Hence, to turn the situation around for these farmers, the government should fix procurement price of at least Rs 15,000 per quintal. Earlier, the tarpaulin and the fertilizer spraying machine would be provided to the farmers by the department of horticulture at subsidised rates, but the practise stopped. This should resume again, demanded Varadharajan.