Anantapur: Labour scarcity, fall in prices add to farmers' distress

Anantapur: Though agriculture operations are exempted from lockdown, labourers are reluctant to come to work for fear of corona virus. In addition, due to steep fall in prices, farmers are unable to supply fruits to other states which pushed them into financial problems. Even though there is demand for vegetables such as onions, potatoes and tomatoes, lack of transport and closed markets are adding to their woes.

Horticulture farmer Suresh Babu told 'The Hans India' that local consumption is very small, prices of agricultural commodities such as perishable vegetables such as grapes, sweet lemon, water melon and papaya have fallen by 75 per cent as bulk demand from wholesale markets has nosedived and there is uncertainty over exports. Signs of distress are surfacing among horticulture farmers in the district who number roughly 8,000 and account for production of 90 lakh tonnes of 10 varieties of fruits, owing to corona threat," he adds.

Similarly, farmers K Bhavana Reddy and B Nagendra Prasad from Ellutla said the traders are offering a meagre Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500 per ton of bananas. The price has fallen from Rs 15,000 to Rs 3,000 in a couple of weeks. They could not find labourers to harvest the crop. If the crops are not harvested at the right time, they start perishing, lamented Muchukota, a farmer. No doubt, lockdown has left the horticulture farmers in lurch; no one has come forward to rescue them.

Neither the state government nor the central government have come forward to rescue them, complains another farmer. "Labourers are unwilling to come out for work and also there is no transport to pick them from nearby villages. Falling prices, lack of cold storage units, want of buyers are forcing us to give fruits for throwaway prices," he concludes.