COVID-driven demand pushes up sweet lime prices
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One tonne, that fetched ₹4,000 final yr, is now commanding ₹70,000 to ₹1.10 lakh
With the phrase spreading that vitamin C, zinc and proteins are required to construct and keep the immunity, individuals are scrambling to the markets to purchase citrus fruits, which in flip, is driving up the prices.
Sweet lime(Mosambi), for one, has seen a ten-fold rise in its value leaving the growers in Anantapur a happier lot. While throughout the lockdown final yr, a tonne fetched simply ₹4,000 forcing many farmers to cease rising the crop, this yr the same amount is commanding ₹70,000 to ₹1.10 lakh relying on the scale and high quality.
D. Ramudu, a farmer from Mukundapuram in Garladinne mandal who acquired 5 tonnes in every of three acres within the first crop(from February-end to June), has acquired his produce despatched to Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh the place the demand is excessive. The demand is rising in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and different northern and western States the place the virus unfold is extra rampant.
A dealer has employed a lorry, paying ₹1 lakh freight costs, and loaded it with fruits partially from Ramudu’s farm and the remaining from the Agriculture Marketyard in Anantapur.
Ramudu remembers how he was disillusioned to seek out no takers for the produce final yr. He couldn’t promote greater than 10 out of 21 tonnes at a median of ₹6,000 per tonne.
Anantapur Assistant Director of Horticulture Gatti Satish Kumar instructed The Puucho that sweet lime was grown in 53,000 hectares within the district. The sandy purple and black soils discovered right here have been conducive for the crop to develop because it wants soil the place water stagnation just isn’t there.
The demand in Anantapur is excessive additionally as a result of the crop failed in Nalgonda, Mahboobnagar, Kadapa and Prakasam districts because of heavy rains within the late monsoon affecting the flowering of the present season, he stated.
“Advantage of this crop is that it can be plucked any time within three months once the fruits are ready on the plants,” he added.
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