Vijayawada: Lockdown leaves mango farmers in distress

Vijayawada: Lockdown has emerged as hurdle for the mango farmers in Krishna district in selling and exporting their produce. Though the crop is ready for sale, the farmers and traders are neither in a position to export to other states nor to sell in the local markets in Vijayawada, Guntur, Eluru, Ongole and other places due to police restrictions in the red zone areas.

Due to lockdown, traders from Delhi or Mumbai are not coming to Nuzvid or Vijayawada to place the orders. Skilled labourers from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra did not come to Nuzvid area for packing of mangoes this year due to lockdown.

Consequently, the local mango farmers lost the opportunity to pack the produce properly and export to other states. The lockdown norms are also a big hurdle to the mango exporters of Krishna district.

If the traders get orders from other states even after some days or weeks, they are not in a position to pack mangoes in boxes. "Packing is very important in marketing of mangoes," said Ch Srinivasulu, Assistant Director of Horticulture. He said packing workers from other states are unlikely to come to Nuzvid area for the work this season due to threat of Covid-19 and strict lockdown rules being implemented in the country. If the Banginapalli mangoes are exported, the farmers may get price between Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per ton in other states.

If they sell in the local market they may get between Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per ton. The farmers are not able to sell the mangoes in the local market at Vijayawada, Guntur, Eluru and other cities due to increasing Red Zone areas and police restrictions.

The government is giving only three hours relaxation for the sales in Vijayawada from 6 am to 9 am. In this backdrop, the mango farmers are not coming to Vijayawada and other towns/ cities for the sale of mangoes. If the lockdown rules continue some more weeks, the mango farmers will suffer huge loss. Mango is cultivated in over 40,000 hectares in Krishna district. The Railways is ready to arrange special goods train, but there is no packaging facility and there are no orders from other states.