Vijayapura: Despite growing the export quality grape in the district, the farmers are dismayed because of the poor prices for the grape in the market this year.
The District’s grape farmers have been hit by a series of problems, ranging from the Covid pandemic and lockdown, which resulted in massive losses, to untimely rain which harmed the crop. Now, with a good monsoon and conducive climate which has helped in growing good quality grape, the falling prices have caused worry among the grape farmers.
Vijayapura, which is one of the largest grape-growing districts in the State, is also known for producing export quality grapes.
According to the officials of the Horticulture Department, around 60 per cent of the total grape production of the State is cultivated in the Vijayapura District.
The fruit is cultivated on over 13,000 hectares of land in Vijayapura.
“Though the grape cultivation suffered some loss in November last year due to untimely rains when the crop recovered from the damage, the falling prices have made an adverse impact on the earning of the farmers,” said Ramanna Sidramshetty.
A grape farmer of Tikota Village said that the farmers spend around Rs. 2.5 lakh on each acre of cultivation of grapes. Many farmers borrow loans from the banks for cultivation and the fruit demands a higher cost of cultivation.
“If the farmer incurs loss or fails to get desirable prices in the market, then he will get trapped in financial burden. Repaying loans becomes a major problem for the farmers,” he said.
Peeragond Gadyal, one of the functionaries of Grape Growers Association said that the farmers can earn some profit only if the grape is sold at Rs. 60 or Rs. 70 per kg.
He said that though some of the farmers were going to convert grapes into raisins for better prices since raisin is also not fetching good prices, the farmers wanted to sell fresh fruit themselves.
He said that presently, the grape is being exported to Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru. “The agents are purchasing from us. They are buying at a very low price of Rs. 30 per kg. They said that since the demand for grapes has fallen in the market due to Covid, they are unable to pay more price for the fruit. Now, after spending a good deal of money on cultivation, we are forced to sell it for a meagre price as we are left with no better option,” he said.
He demands the government to intervene to stabilise the market and help the anxious farmers.
