Even as the final step for securing the Geographical Indication (GI) tag for the Marayur jaggery has been completed giving hopes to farmers, the prices of the produce continue to be on the decline.
The prices per sack of 60 kg of Marayur jaggery is ₹2,500 to ₹2,600, which had once reached over ₹3,400. Anchunadu Karimpulpadaka Vipanana Sanghom vice president Ali Akbar told The Hindu on Wednesday that the Marayur jaggery was not sold through auction but buyers themselves decided the price.
The small-scale farmers had no other option but sell at low prices.
However, he said that once the GI tag was received and arrival of fake jaggery from Tamil Nadu was blocked, the farmers would get a remunerative price. The traditionally made Marayur jaggery is sweeter and brownish in colour, having no salty taste.
It has high iron content and has less insoluble impurities.
He said that if government agencies directly procured the Marayur jaggery, no fake jaggery would arrive in the market. The cost of production of Marayur jaggery is higher and its quality is superior, owing to traditional processing and favourable climatic and soil conditions.
High cost
Sugar cane is a major crop of Marayur and many farmers have turned to cultivating coconut, areca nut, and cash crops after they suffered continuous losses.
It is estimated that around 1,000 farmers in Maryur are engaged in sugar-cane farming.
They have 1 to 1.5 acres of land each. The cultivation has dwindled to 1,200 to 1,500 hectares of land from 2,500 to 2,700 hectares in a decade.
“Earlier, we used to get ₹60 to ₹70 a kg of jaggery. It was when the cost of labour per day was ₹300 and the price of fertilisers nearly one-third of what it is now,” Manikandan, a farmer who abandoned sugar-cane cultivation, said.
Workers from Onakkallur, near Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu, are traditionally engaged in the processing of jaggery. Sugar-cane farmers hire them along with their equipment.
Making jaggery is a continuous process in Marayur and frequent price fluctuations cause heavy losses to the farmers. During the Onam and Christmas seasons, the prices tend to increase.
Benefits few
However, its benefits is limited to only a few farmers who harvest sugar cane during those seasons. A stern step to arrest the price fluctuation and measures to block fake produce will help them, farmers say.