Storage worries for chilli farmers

Purchasers stay away, harvest faces weather risk

Getting a place in a cold storage to keep their harvested produce, particularly chillies, is turning out to be a herculean task for farmers, who have raised the crop over 56,000 acres in Khammam district.

N. Ananthaiah, a farmer from Konigerla, has been trying continuously to get a place for storing his harvested chilli in any of the cold storages in Khammam. He even approached a TRS leader for recommendation, but even that did not help. This is not case only with Ananthaiah but many other chilli farmers.

There are 18 cold storages in Khammam with total storage capacity of 22 lakh quintals. However, all the space in these storages is reportedly full of various farm produce harvested in the previous season, including chillies. These stocks had arrived in the godowns before the lockdown.

With no space to store their latest drop, farmers have stacked chillies in their fields. But they are fearful of unseasonal rains destroying their crop. The district has already witnessed two spells of rain in the last 20 days.

Currently, no stocks are being lifted as agricultural markets in Khammam, Nelakondapalli, Madhira, Kallur, Wyra and Sattupalli have been closed as part of lockdown.

Mandadapu farmer said

Sudhakar, a the government should at least lease private godowns if the chilli crop is to be stored safely.

Following repeated pleas from farmers, Khammam Agricultural Market Committee is planning to open the market from May 24 for limited hours. Gudavarthi Srinivasa Rao, a chilli trader said farmers have about two lakh quintals of chilli with them.

If the government opens the market, it would be of great help to the farmers, sources said.