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Delhi disappoints muskmelon farmers
Muskmelon farmers, who had invested heavily in fruit cultivation, are a disappointed lot with the prices of the fruit declining in its major target market - Delhi. Abundant cultivation of the crop across the country and its dumping into the Delhi market has landed Anantapur farmers in financial losses.
Garladinne (Anantapur): Muskmelon farmers, who had invested heavily in fruit cultivation, are a disappointed lot with the prices of the fruit declining in its major target market - Delhi. Abundant cultivation of the crop across the country and its dumping into the Delhi market has landed Anantapur farmers in financial losses.
Venkatesh, a muskmelon farmer who has raised the fruit on three acres of land, was expecting Rs 25,000 per tonne like usual but he could get only Rs 5000 per tonne. "Chief Minister talks of making Anantapur a horticulture hub but the district does not have a single cold storage. If only we had a cold storage, we would not have indulged in distress sale.
We could have stocked the fruit in the cold storage and waited for the right time. As stocks get depleted in the Delhi market we would have dumped our fruit at the right time," said Venkatesh, who total loss is at Rs 3 lakh. Anantapur, where muskmelon is cultivated on more than 2,000 acres, is fast emerging as a horticulture basin with multiple fruits being raised.
Interestingly, the district farmers never depend on a single crop. Venkatesh is cultivating bananas and also oranges as a back-up plan. The muskmelon is cultivated in Anantapur, Kundurpi, Kambadur, Beluguppa and Kalyandurg divisions and particularly in Alamuru and Kammuru villages where farmers are cultivating in 2000 acres or more. The seed of muskmelon alone costs Rs 70,000 per kg. One kilogram of the seed is sufficient to raise the fruit in one hectare (2.5 acres).
Narayanappa, another farmer in Belugappa, said that the fruit should be packed in boxes of 10 kilogrammes. Farmers earns Rs 150 while packaging and transportation incurs an expenditure of Rs 120. It is just Rs 30 per box a farmer makes as profit. “If other expenditure like the seed, irrigation, labour and maintenance is taken into consideration and calculated acre wise, we are left with nothing but a loss of Rs 1 lakh per acre,” he said.
In the past farmers like Sivashankar of Parsannayapalli village scripted success story and many followed him. He earned a net profit of Rs. 65,000 per acre. In total, he earned Rs 6.5 lakh profit for his 10-acre crop. He even enjoyed the excitement of going to Delhi by flight to sell his produce. But now, nearly 100 farmers from Anantapur have experienced a jolt with the sudden fall in melon prices and a spurt in production in other parts of the country.
Sharing some bit of encouraging information, sources in the department of Horticulture said that if entrepreneurs come forward to set up cold storages, there are subsidies and incentives being extended by the state and central governments.
