Shallot farmers in Tamil Nadu's Palladam suffer as price stagnates at Rs 15 per kilogram

TIRUPPUR:  Shallot farmers who stored harvest three months hoping for procurement price to improve are in a quandary as prices have not increased and they cannot hold on to the stock any longer.

Procurement price fell to Rs 13-15 per kilogram months ago, and more than two dozen farmers in Palladam, built Pattarai systems, a unique storage method which involves using bamboo sticks, dried coconut branches and hollow stone blocks to store the harvest. Since the price has not improved much, the farmers are in distress.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, R Senthil Kumar a farmer from Palladam said, "I cultivated in 4.5 acres and spent more than Rs 1 lakh per acre in January. Though yield was good, procurement prices of shallot dropped to Rs 15 per kilogram."

"As I have invested more than Rs 4 lakhs for the crops, I was desperate. So, I created a Pattarai and stored more than 5 tonnes of shallots. I built wo more Pattarais at the end of March. But the procurement prices continue to remain the same. I am forced to sell for these prices in a desperate attempt to reduce my loss," he added.

A Sundaramoorthy, a farmer in Kalinathapalayam said, "I spent more than Rs 1.2 lakh on cultivating shallots and got a yield of 8 tonnes in March, which is good for a small farmer like me. But as prices were low, I spent Rs 25,000 for 'Pattarai' hoping the price will rise in the coming months. But the procurement prices have not been raised."

An official from the horticulture department said, "In January, hundreds of acres were cultivated in Palladam and Pongalur. As farmers are aware of the price fluctuation, they used the Pattarais. We also found several hundred farmers have sowed shallot in the mid-March and April. As the harvest time of those crops fell in June and July, the new arrivals flowed into the market causing the procurement prices to fall."