Steep fall in banana yield

P Gannavaram (East Godavari): Banana exports from Amabajipeta and Ravulapalem markets in East Godavari district drastically reduced due to large scale crop destruction caused by the cyclones. Plantain farmers are unable to come to terms with the huge loss. Farmers, traders and thousands of labourers who depend on the crop in East Godavari district are in trouble.

Plantain crop in 35,000 acres was damaged due to the rains and gales in the district. Farmers borrowed money at higher interest and invested Rs 1 lakh for acre. They are in despair as they are unable to get even an income Rs 5000 from an acre. The farmers have to invest heavily if they have to remove the damaged trees and plant the new ones. As the damaged and inferior quality banana bunches are arriving in the market, traders are not coming forward to purchase the produce. As a result, the prices and exports dropped suddenly.

Karpooram, Chakrakeli, Bonta, Vrishavali and Amritavalli are the popular plantain varieties cultivated in the district. Hundreds of farmers from Lanka villages daily bring banana bunches to Ambajipeta and Ravulapalem markets. On an average daily 25,000 bunches of plantains will be exported to Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar and other states in the country.

The daily turnover of these markets would be around Rs 25 lakh daily. But, at present only 4 to 5 lorries of the stock is exported from the market due to the poor quality of the produce.

Even if the value of a bunch of bananas is estimated at Rs 200 the trade volume is less than Rs 14 lakh daily. Due to the low yield farmers as well as traders and labourers are facing several problems.