Depressed oil palm farmers raze plantations

Vizianagaram: Faced with drastic reduction of prices for their produce, the distraught oil palm farmers in the district are destroying plantations to make way for other profitable crops such as mango.

The price of one tonne of oil palm bunch has nosedived from Rs 6,500 to Rs 4,500. With the soaring prices of fertilisers and pesticides and increasing cost of agriculture labourers, the production costs of the crop has gone up significantly without resulting in any profits but generating losses.

In the past, an acre generated a good income up to Rs 30,000 but times have changed for bad, lament farmers.

After East Godavari, Vizianagaram leads in the oil palm plantations spread across an extent of 25,000 hectares. Kurupam, Bobbili, Seethanagaram, Komarada and Parvathipuram mandals have huge tracts of land under oil palm cultivation.

Adding to their woes is the lethargic attitude of oil mills’ owners. “Once bunches are cut from the trees, they should be shifted to oil mills within two days. But as the mill managements delay the transportation process, those bunches lose weight and incur losses,” laments a farmer D Satyanarayana of Garububilli mandal.

Besides the unfavourable market, the rise in wages of agriculture labourers and fertilisers too pushed the farmers into financial distress. “The price of potash has gone up from Rs 350 to Rs 850, super phosphate from Rs 250 to Rs 450, and a truck full of natural organic pesticide from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. And workers who cut bunches are paid Rs 300 a day besides other perks like meals. After this we are literally left with nothing,” bemoans a farmer K Chandrashekar of Parvathipuram.

By:Koppara Gandhi