Totapuri mango farmers fear produce will wither soon if not procured
The woes of mango farmers especially the Totapuri variety keep increasing with no solution in sight. The fruits are ripe and ready for harvest, but with scores of fruit pulp making units across Tirupati and Chittoor districts reluctant for procurement, owing to stock piled up over the last two years, the fruit is likely to wither any moment.
Totapuri (locally called 'Bengalura') variety is grown on 50,000 hectares in the undivided Chittoor district and the yield is pegged at a whopping six lakh tonnes this year.
At a joint meeting held with mango pulp unit representatives, farmer leaders and 'Mandi' owners recently, district Collectors Sumit Kumar (Chittoor) and S. Venkateswar (Tirupati) announced procurement of mangoes from farmers at ₹12 per kg. After the factories sounded an alarm, the government chipped in with a support price of ₹4/kg, requiring the factories to pay ₹8/kg.
The farmers usually dispose the produce by directly supplying to the factories, to the nearest Mandi, at the ramps (one-stop purchase points where the produce is loaded directly into waiting trucks), and at the nearest Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), who, in turn supply to the factories.
The government had deployed officials at the factories, ramps, FPOs and Mandis to take details of the farmers and the quantum of supply. Despite such foolproof measures, the factories have reportedly insisted on a quick-fix solution to the piled up pulp before throwing their gates open to the incoming produce.
The agitated farmers on Wednesday (June 11) had staged a protest over the district machinery's inability to implement its orders on mango procurement at Damalacheruvu junction on Chittoor-Kurnool national highway.
Meanwhile, some factories had partially opened their gates to purchase mangoes, but at a paltry ₹5 per kg and not the mandatory ₹8/kg. 'At ₹5, we will not get even the cost incurred towards harvesting and transporting the yield to the factories', rued a farmer Goduguchinta Ravindra.
While there are ramps that load fruits into waiting trucks bound to northern States, there is lack of clarity on how to secure the farmer's (beneficiary) details and account for this supply. 'If we are paid for supplying to ramps, much stock will be cleared in no time', says B. Dhananjaya Naidu, a mango supplier for three decades.
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