Banana cultivators stare at huge loss after fresh COVID restrictions
With strict restrictions for markets and hotels being imposed due to the second wave of COVID-19, the banana cultivators as well as agriculture labourers have been affected badly.
With several lakhs of banana bunches and leaves lying in wait for customers, the cultivators have been left without income and are finiding it difficult to meet both ends meet. They have requested the authorities to to relax certain norms for their daily welfare.
It is said, at least 20 lakh banana leaves and around one lakh banana bunches used to be sent to Chennai and the adjacent markets each day from the districts like Thanjavur, Tiruchy and Karur and several lakhs of banana cultivators and the agriculture workers depend on this work.
Since the lockdown last year, the farmers could not transport bananas and the banana leaves, resulting huge loss as the local market could consume only below 20 percent of the total harvest. However, after five months, the norms were relaxed and the farmers continued to send the products to the other markets in various places including in Chennai and thus they were limping towards normal condition.
But, the things changed otherwise after a few months again as the second wave of COVID 19 brought back the restrictions to the markets and the restaurants, forcing these cultivators to remain inactive for the past few weeks. This has resulted in the piling up of several lakhs of banana bunches and leaves. “At least 100 lorries with banana and leaves load use to be transported daily from the region to Chennai but now a days after the restriction, only around 20 loads are sent to cater the needs of the local as well as the smaller markets across the state”, said N Subramanian, from the Banana farmers association Karur.
He said that the restriction has affected the prices of the banana bunches. “Earlier a bunch of bananas was sold at upto Rs 300 but now it has been sold at the local market at Rs 60 and the farmers had to sell at this price unwillingly to avoid a total loss,” Subramanian said.
Meanwhile, Thanjavur Banana farmers’ association president M Mathialagan said that at least 25,000 farmers and agriculture labourers are involved in banana cultivation in Thanjavur district alone. “Earlier the workers could work for at least six days a week and earn decent wages each week but now it has been reduced to three days and so they lost their livelihood and so the farmers,” Mathialagan stressed.
Mathialagan claimed that at least the famers lost an income worth Rs 50 crore for five months during the previous lock down in Thanjavur district alone.
“I lost at least Rs 25 lakh during the past lockdown and this has repeated this time too.” he said and added that most of the farmers have cultivated their land by borrowing money from the private players and the restriction left them to face severe loss.
The farmers urged the government to give certain relaxation to the restriction to continue their usual business so that they could compensate the previous lockdown’s losses.