The crash in price of the poovan banana has hit farmers badly as the variety is grown in large tracts of land in Tiruchi and Karur districts. While the lockdown had led to the crash in prices of almost all varieties of banana due to poor demand and problems in transport early this month, the subsequent government action to facilitate movement of farm produce has resulted in the appreciation of price of most varieties of banana, except the poovan variety.
Poovan banana, farmers and traders explain, is largely bought for festivals and events such as marriages and other ceremonies and temple festivals. Besides, it is purchased in bulk quantities for making panchamirtham in the Palani Dhandayuthapani Swamy and other temples in the State. “With the temples remaining closed and all events and festivals suspended, there has hardly been any demand for the variety,” said K.P.Palanivel, president, Plantain Traders Association, at Gandhi Market.
Although the daily auction at the vazhakkai mandi at the Gandhi Market has been suspended at the direction of the district administration to avoid the crowd and check the spread of the novel corona virus, wholesale traders continue to procure banana bunches on negotiated prices from farmers, many of whom continue to bring their produce here.
“We continue to receive about 10,000 bunches a day (against the normal arrival of about 20,000 bunches a day). Poovan is the only variety which is not in demand as marriages and festivals have been suspended. Farmers in Thottiyam region have been badly hit. Prices of all other varieties have recovered to some extent thanks to the efforts of the Collector and traders in moving the produce from the field,” he said.
According to him, poovan variety is now sold in the range of just ₹5 to 8 a kg due to heavy arrivals and poor demand against its normal price of up to ₹20 a kg. The robusta (green) variety was selling at just about ₹8 a kg due to heavy arrivals.
The price of Nendran variety, which had fallen to just about ₹8 to 10 a kg in the initial days of lockdown, rallied sharply to ₹30 a few days back. But now the price of the variety was ruling at around ₹22 a kg. Similarly, the price of Elarasi has recovered to ₹22 from ₹10 a kg. Similarly, the field price of red banana has gone up to ₹30 from ₹10 a kg, he said.
Meanwhile farmers’ representatives have called for the government’s intervention to support banana growers who had raised the poovan variety. “The government should procure the poovan and robusta varieties from the farmers directly,” says Puliyur A.Nagarajan, president, farmers’ wing of the Tamil Maanila Congress.
The party president G.K.Vasan came out with a statement on Wednesday expressing concern over the heavy losses sustained by farmers, especially those growing the two varieties. Supporting the demand for procurement by government, he requested the State to come to the rescue of the farmers at this critical junction.
Supporting the demand, Mr.Palanivel observed that the government can procure the varieties and arrange for producing value added products.