When a 30-year-old marginal farmer from Karapuzha, K. When Baiju planted ginger on a two-acre rented land at Ambalavayal in Wayanad about a year ago, his intention was only to repay the loan he had taken for farming.
Generally, ginger farmers start harvesting by the end of May as they get better price for the produce with the arrival of monsoon. But the farmer was forced to harvest the crop two days back due to financial constraints and the farming again suffered heavy losses.
The low farm-gate price was the villain this time. “I got ₹850 for a bag (60 kg) of ginger, as against ₹2,300 per bag during the period last year,” says Baiju. He spent about ₹8 lakh on farming, but could not recover even a fraction after the harvest.
“The farming community has faced a double whammy of rising prices of essential commodities and low prices of agricultural products,” he says.
He had taken a personal loan of ₹2.5 lakh from a financial institution five years ago and had mortgaged his 1.5 acres of land for pepper seedlings. The plants were destroyed in the 2018 floods.
Prashant Rajesh, President, Wayanad Coffee Growers Association, says the hike in fuel prices is reflected in the prices of fertilizers, especially Muriate of Potash (MOP) and phosphate fertilizers.
The MoP price in Wayanad on Thursday was ₹1,700 per bag (50 kg), as against ₹800 during the same period last year. Coffee farmers apply three to four bags of mop to one acre a year because it encourages early growth, increases leaf area and affects robusta bean size.
“Freight has also gone up significantly. Usually, I pay ₹700 for a tractor to transport the manure from the shops to my plantation. Now they are charging ₹1,050. The price of phosphate fertilizer has also increased from ₹470 per bag to ₹700 now,” says Mr. Rajesh.
But the price of coffee beans has not increased in proportion to the inputs. Coffee beans were priced at ₹99 per kg against ₹87 in mid-March. But most farmers did not benefit from the hike as they sold the produce to renew their loans at financial institutions, he says.
The sharp fall in the prices of agricultural products, especially short-lived crops such as ginger, cassava and banana following the outbreak of COVID-19, has put the farming community under stress and the rising prices of essential commodities have put farmers in a dire straits Is. The convener of Harita Sena, a farmers’ organization in Wayanad, N. Sudhakar Swami says
Various diseases affecting black pepper had forced many farmers to turn to the cultivation of ginger and bananas to survive. But they have suffered heavy losses due to repeated floods and pandemic outbreaks, he says.
The situation of tea and arecanut farmers is no different. More than 90% of betel nuts were destroyed due to yellow leaf disease and bud rot. Tea farmers are now getting ₹12.10 per kg for raw leaves, compared to ₹17.29 per kg during the same period last year, says Mr. Swamy.
They say thousands of farmers in the district are facing measures for securitization and reconstruction of financial assets and recovery against farm loans under the Securities Interest (SARFAESI) Act during the crisis.