It ain't a hot deal for chilli farmers at auctions

The dream of farmers to earn Rs 3,000 per quintal of chillies this year remains a dream. During the ongoing second and final phase of auctions at the government market yard here, farmers have found themselves selling off their crop at rates which they not happy with.

Chilli farmers had carefully planned and stored their crop in about 40 cold storages in and around Guntur since January and prepared for the second phase of auctions. Their hope to get a better price than what they were paid during the first phase of auctions is yet to materialise.

The highest average bid recorded at the yard so far has been Rs 2,500 per quintal for the best (A) special variety. A freak price of Rs 2,600 was recorded once in June and May and Rs 2,551 in May.

According to M Sivaramaiah, mirchi yard special grade secretary, 32 lakh mirchi tikkis (40 kg bags) are still lying at the cold storages and about 7 lakh tikkis are with farmers.

Mirchi arrivals have also slowed down. This month, the crop arrivals have so far been put around 1,97,451 quintals. In June, 2,83,139 quintals of mirchi was auctioned while in May it was 1,33,981 quintals and in April it was 2,39,738 quintals.

Farmers have sold 9,66,192 quintals of crop from April till now. The maximum prices realised by mirchi farmers in April, May, June and July this year were Rs 2,511, Rs 2,600, Rs 2,600 and Rs 2,500 per quintal respectively. Farmers were paid Rs 3,000, Rs 3,000, Rs 2,600, Rs 2,300 per quintal respectively in April, May, June and July in 2004.

The minimum price that farmers realised in all these four months last year was Rs 500. This year, the minimum price was Rs 300. Even model prices fixed by the yard officials have nosedived.

The model prices for April, May, June and July this year were Rs 1,800, Rs 1,400, Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,300 respectively as against last year's Rs 1,900, Rs 2,200, Rs 2,700 and Rs 2,700 respectively.

While a maximum price of Rs 1,500 and a minimum of Rs 1,000 were paid per quintal of red chillies, white chillies earned a maximum price of Rs 600 and a minimum of Rs 300 per quintal.

A (air-conditioned) special mirchi varieties fetched farmers a maximum of Rs 2,500 per quintal and a minimum of Rs 2,000. Non-A (non-air-conditioned) mirchi types were paid a maximum of Rs 2,400 and a minimum of Rs 1,500 per quintal.

Sivaramaiah said that Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which used to be mirchi importing states, have now become mirchi producing states. This has been the main reason for reduced prices even in the second phase, he said.

"However," he said, "reports indicate that farmers in those states have been forced to dispose of their crop as they do not have cold storage facilities. Traders may rush to buy Andhra crop in a month and push up prices."