Andhra Pradesh

Rain dashes hopes of chilli farmers

Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar

Farmers covering chillies with plastic covers on the ‘chilli yard’ premises in Guntur on Sunday. —

GUNTUR: The torrential rainfall that has been lashing the district for the past two days has dashed the hopes of farmers cultivating the chilli. The unseasonal rain caught most of the chilli farmers unawares and exposed the absence of proper drying techniques and post-harvest management practices.

Continuous exposure to rainfall-induced moisture can lead to discolour of the crop and a sharp decline in the price. Farmers affected by the rain are worried that the price of chilli might decline from the present price hovering between Rs.3,000 to Rs.3,500 per quintal to just over Rs.500.

Chillies are grown on 70,000 hectares in the district an increase of 10,000 hectares from that of last year.

“We expect the present loss to be around 15-20 per cent of the total harvest, but if the rain persists for the next two days the loss could be higher at 50 per cent.

We will appeal to Markfed and other agencies to procure the discoloured chilli and bail out farmers,” Agricultural Market Committee chairman Lella Appi Reddy said. On Saturday, he toured Guntur rural and Tadikonda mandals to assess the loss suffered by farmers.

The rain also exposed the lack of proper post-harvest management techniques.

The worst-affected were the farmers who struck to conventional drying techniques of having the chilli spread out on the open fields, without a proper cover. The chillies being dried on open surfaces have completely lost their value.

Though the Horticulture Department is pushing the concept of using poly driers, there have not been many takers.

Poly Driers, structures covered by semi permeable poly sheets, offer the harvested chillies protection from rainfall and direct sun light. With recent changes, the driers have doubled up as nurseries to grow the plants. However, a prohibitive price of Rs.57,000, inclusive of 50 per cent subsidy, has deterred many farmers from procuring these high- end drying structures.

On Sunday, Mr. Reddy along with Member of Parliament Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, met in-charge Collector Kantilal Dande and sought the help of Markfed to procure the discoloured chilli. Mr. Dande directed Joint Director of Agriculture P. Ajith Kumar and Assistant Director of Horticulture D. Madhusudana Reddy to submit preliminary reports on the extent of the loss suffered by farmers.

However, incessant rain on Sunday hampered their efforts.

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