Horticulture farmers seek support price

Support price for non-perishable agriculture products but the same is not applied to horticulture products, all of which are perishable, says an official of the Horticulture department on condition of anonymity

Kalyandurg (Anantapur): Horticulture farmers are up in arms against the policy makers in government particularly the Central government which is formulating policies detrimental to horticulture farmers.

The burden of their song is that while the centre fixes minimum support prices to agriculture products like paddy, pulses and groundnut etc which are non-perishable, no minimum support prices had been fixed for horticulture products including fruits like bananas, custard apples, mangoes, musk melon, maize, cucumber and pomegranate etc which are perishable.

This problem is not just confined to the district alone but relates to the entire state. The horticulture farmers are raising their voice vociferously as the Anantapur, Kurnool, Kadapa and Chittoor districts have emerged as a horticulture hub with tonnes of fruits being exported to other states as well as countries abroad including European countries and the West.

Adinarayana, a farmer from Andepalle in Kambadur mandal says that due to registering of good rains last year about 22 lakh tonnes of maize was produced by farmers while the normal annual production was 12 lakh tonnes. Due to a record high production, the prices crashed landing the farmers in dire-straits. This is where the government should step in to regulate prices, he adds by ensuring a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for every horticulture product which is perishable.

An officer on anonymity in Horticulture department stated that the policy makers had fixed minimum support prices for non-perishable agriculture products but the same is not applied to horticulture products, all of which are perishable. The government has left the later to the mercy of market forces and has given protection to agriculture farmers, who do not need the MSP security.

When prices crash of any horticulture product crash, the government does not have any mechanism to address the problem. There is no rationale behind pursuing such half-baked policy, the official adds.

Amarnath Reddy, a banana farmer in Yadiki mandal in Tadipatri constituency regrets that although horticulture was being promoted on a massive scale in the country, the Central government's policy in denying market security is disturbing. He felt that the horticulture farmers lobby is not strong in the government, that's why the government do not care the horticulture farmers, who stands in distress every crop year. Every year, 5,000 metric tonnes of banana is exported from the district.

Obuleshu, another tomato farmer lamented that in the current crop year, tomato prices crashed to rock bottom levels forcing the farmer to abandon harvesting of their tomato crop recently as the harvesting cost is much more than what they get in return.

They were offered Rs 50 a crate which is viewed as not cost effective. Mallikarjun, another pomegranate farmer of Rayadurg constituency says that the Chief Minister talked a lot of making Rayalaseema a horticulture hub for four years during his 22-time visit to the district but nothing concrete had been done nor has any action plan formulated in the direction. Unless, the chief ministers of all states approach the centre in an integrated manner and pressurise the government in this regard, this problem does not appear to be in its priority list.