Forty-six-year-old Y. Subba Rao of Koniki village, near Inkollu, in a desperate bid to prevent withering away of ripe chilli, harvests the crop himself unable to find farm workers in the wake of the lockdown 2.0 announced by the Centre.
The farmer with one and half acres of land is now clueless on marketing his produce this year as the market remained closed indefinitely in the wake of imposition of lockdown.
“Encouraged by the high market price for chilli, I raised the crop this year after having burnt my fingers in the wake of the market crash three years ago,” recalls the farmer while plucking the produce along with his wife, son, daughter and brother-in-law.
Mr. Rao as also other farmers in the village, where the pungent crop is grown extensively, are keeping their fingers crossed as the agents of traders who used to visit their farms during this time every year, kept away in the wake of market crash after exports to COVID-19-hit China stopped.
“We have been harvesting the produce for the last 15 days on our own. Still it will take another 10 days to complete the harvest,” adds another farmer T. Anjaneyulu from nearby Rachapudi village while packing the harvested chilli to move it a cold storage unit in Inkollu.
This is the time when harvest of the pungent crop peaks in Prakasam district.
“Farm workers are not turning up for plucking even if I offer double the usual wage of ₹250 a day,” complains another farmer Hanumantha Rao, who had left standing chilli crop to wither away after a few rounds of plucking, as its price went southwards three years ago. Now again the ready-to-harvest crop is withering away as farm workers shy away from farm work fearing contracting the dreaded coronavirus.
The traders are not coming forward to purchase chilli at not more than ₹5,000 per quintal, adds yet another farmer K. Koteswara Rao.
The lockdown has come at a most inopportune time for these farmers who were hoping against hope for the market to restart sooner than later.
At least 15 workers have to work simultaneously at a time to pluck the chilli crop, dry them and shift them to cold storage units. The prices of jute bags had been skyrocketing ever-since the market was closed. A set of 25 jute bags had doubled to ₹2,500 now as the farmers are not in a position to liquidate the stock on hand in the short term.