Chennai, Nov 15, : , The Tamil Nadu Banana farmer community is facing difficult times following heavy rains and the Covid pandemic. Tamil Nadu Banana Growers Federation state secretary, A.G.Ajeethan told IANS, “Excessive rains have led to the collapse of the market and our retail supply is hit.A.G.Ajeethan, Tamil Nadu Banana Growers Federation’s state secretary, told IANS that excessive rains led to the market collapse and that our retail supply has been severely affected.The popular varieties of Poovan and Cavendish fruits are cultivated in the state in more than 1 lakh hectare but owing to the supply chain becoming stagnant, prices have come down drastically.”.Although the state has more than 1 million hectares of Cavendish and Poovan fruit varieties, the prices have fallen drastically due to stagnant supply chains.
He said that twenty per cent of the sale depends on metropolitan cities and after the pandemic that led to the shutdown of the state, the incessant rains led to the supply chains being hit leading to the fall in prices of the banana varieties.He stated that 20% of the sales depend on the metropolitan areas.
After the pandemic which led to the government’s shutdown, incessant rains caused the supply chains to be damaged and led to a fall in the prices of banana varieties.
While ‘Poovan’ which is a popular variety of small bananas costing Rs 15 per kg in Chennai’s Koyamebdu market, has now come down to Rs 7 per kg as the farmers have to dump the produce at the value they get following heavy rains as truck movement is affected in large numbers.
Poovan, a popular small banana variety in Chennai’s Koyamebdu markets, is now Rs 7 per kilogram.This is because the farmers are forced to dump the produce at their value after heavy rains.Truck movement is also affected.
The banana farmers’ leader, Ajeethan said that since the Covid-19 pandemic, the farmers have suffered heavy losses.
Ajeethan, the leader of banana farmers, stated that farmers have suffered severe losses since the Covid-19 epidemic.He, however, said that the farmers could survive only after the state government wrote off the crop loans following the pandemic.
Ajeethan, however, stated that the state government had repaid the crop loans to the farmers in the wake of the pandemic.
He said that nearly 30-35 per cent of the banana is lost even before the produce is taken to the market, leading to distress selling.
He stated that almost 30-35 percent of bananas are lost before they reach the market.This leads to distress selling.
The banana farmers have demanded from the government to introduce pack house system for the farmers to get a good price.Banana farmers demanded that the government introduce a pack house system to ensure farmers get a fair price.
The Paramathy Velur market at Namakkal is the hub of banana sales in the country and traders from across the country reach here to sell.Namakkal’s Paramathy Velur Market is the main hub for banana sales.Here, traders from all over the country come to buy.However incessant rains have led to the traders taking a back seat and the banana that was produced across the state was dumped in the market affecting the prices.The incessant rains caused the traders to lose their importance and bananas from across the state were dumped on the market, affecting the prices.
Subramanian, a banana farmer at Namakkal told IANS, “The farmers are stuck as our crop is dumped in the market and traders have not come forward to purchase.
Subramanian, a Namakkal banana farmer, told IANS that his crop was being dumped on the market and no traders are interested in buying it.We had to sell our crop at throwaway prices and this has affected our earnings.”.Our earnings have been affected by the fact that we had to sell our crop at a loss.
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