Banana price decline
In cities, when you pay Rs 60 to Rs 70 for a dozen bananas, you hardly know how much the farmer who grows them gets. In fact, farmers of Andhra Pradesh, known as the ‘fruit bowl’, are getting only Re 1 for a kg of banana. Farmers of Anantapur district, known for their bumper yields, are now forced to throw their crops on the road instead of selling them in the mandis. The same banana, whose sweetness used to reach across the country and abroad, today its price has come down to just Rs 1 per kg.
Goods worth Rs 28 thousand for Rs 1000
The situation in Anantapur district is currently presenting a bitter picture of the ground reality. The demand for bananas here used to be so high that the government had started a special ‘Banana Train’ from Tadipatri, so that the goods could reach every corner of the country and foreign countries. But, today the same farmer is crying tears of blood.
Statistics testify to this pain. Till some time ago, the price of one tonne banana was Rs 28,000, now it has fallen drastically to just Rs 1,000. If you do the math, the price of one kg banana in the wholesale market is just Rs 1. When the crop was ready after a year’s hard work, the market gave this price to the farmer for his hard work. Why was there such a big difference? Farmers are mainly citing two reasons behind this, which have broken their backs.
- Game of middlemen: The middlemen who have established their hold in the market are taking advantage of the helplessness of the farmers. They are buying the crop at throwaway prices, whereas the same banana becomes 50-60 times more expensive by the time it reaches the common consumer.
- Maharashtra Factor: The second major reason is the huge consignment of bananas coming from the neighboring state Maharashtra. There has been a bumper production this time, due to which there is an oversupply of goods in the market. This has had a direct impact on the demand and prices of the farmers of Anantapur.
the danger of destroying the garden
The situation has become so bad that farmers are no longer left with any option. They also have to pay the fare for taking their crops to the market from their own pockets, whereas the price they get there is negligible. This is the reason why they have started loading ripe crops in tractors and throwing them on the roadside.
The scene is extremely painful, the bananas which should have reached people’s plates are now becoming food for cattle and animals on the roadside. The frustration has increased to such an extent that many farmers have used tractors and dozers on their standing crops. They are leveling their lush green gardens with their own hands, because now it has become difficult to meet the cost of plucking the crop.