The closure of weekly cattle shandy at Manapparai, one of the popular cattle shandies in in the State, has hit cattle growers hard.
The shandy, which meets on Tuesday evening and continues up to 2 p.m. next day, is a favourite trading centre for selling cows, buffaloes, sheep and goats. Traders and farmers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana and Pudukottai visit Manapparai to buy and sell cattle. While a section of traders come to the shandy for buying animals for meat, there are traders, who mainly buy milch animals.
According to a rough estimate, the shandy attracts 25,000 to 30,000 milch animals and bulls and 10,000 sheep and goats every week. About 10,000 farmers and traders visit the shandy every week and transact business to the tune of about ₹5 crore.
But, the closure of the shandy since March 23 has affected the farmers. The farmers can neither buy nor sell milch animals and sheep. Though most restrictions on rural agricultural activities have been lifted, the shandy remains closed for more than seven weeks. No one is able to bring cattle on good carriers due to restrictions on inter State and inter district movement of transportation.
“Both farmers and traders have been hit. Those farmers, who had planned to meet the marriage expenses of their daughters and sons by selling cattle, are in a real fix,” says N. Ponnusamy, a cattle trader in Manapparai.
He said many farmers were desperate to sell their cattle. But, they could not do so as no truck operators had come forward to transport cattle to other areas due to transport restrictions in view of the lockdown.
Mr. Ponnusamy said that summer was a period to sell milch animals as the farmers would invariably find it difficult to feed them properly. Moreover, the yield of milch animals would come down drastically in summer months. It was a best period to buy cattle for a good bargain. But, nothing could be done due to the extended closure of the cattle shandy, he said.
However, opening the shandy would raise issues such as maintaining social distancing and effective steps to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
When contacted a senior Animal Husbandry Department official pointed out that the shandy attracts huge crowds and reopening of the shandy would depend on the government’s decision.