Carrot storage facility in Kodaikanal lacks patronage from farmers

Help farmers in Dindigul get fair price for their carrots with storage facility & organic production.

In November 2019, during a farmers’ grievances meeting held in Kodaikanal, officials had announced that a storage facility for carrots and hill garlic will come up at Poondi village, near Kavunji and it would benefit farmers from Kavunji, Vadakavunji, Kilavarai, Kookal, Gundalpatti, Mannavanur and Poombarai.

The facility was set up at a cost of ₹ 8 crore in about 1 acre of land. It was hoped that the facility would help store perishable products for a longer time and help manage price fluctuation. But now it lies in disuse as it lacks patronage from the farmers. 

“The storage facility now caters mostly to hill garlic and due to some technical issue the carrot washing facility is also non-functional,” says an official.

For carrot farmers in Kodaikanal getting a fair price for their produce has been a perennial problem. In Dindigul Uzhavar Santhai on Friday, a kilo of carrot was being sold at ₹45. While up in Kodaikanal, Raja, a carrot farmer was paid ₹15 for a kg of carrot by a wholesale dealer. Unable to break even, many carrot farmers in Kodaikanal are in a fix. 

Farmers say that they spend about ₹90,000 per acre for cultivating carrots, this includes ₹28,000 for buying a kilo of carrot seeds, workers salary and fertilizers. “But at the end of the day, we are forced to sell one kg of carrots for ₹30 to traders who set up stalls at tourists spots and sell the fresh produce for rates that sometimes even touch ₹80 per kg,” says Rajamani, a carrot farmer from Kodaikanal. 

“If we store carrots in the facility not only is the freshness lost but even the asking price gets lowered. Hence, we prefer to sell the produce on the same day it is harvested,” says Raja. For many farmers once the harvest is done they need immediate cash and storage facilities do not offer this leverage.

For small time farmers who take farm lands on lease, it is a double whammy. The various subsidies announced by the government for farmers are enjoyed by the landowner and it is not passed on to the lessee. Secondly with no minimum support price for the produce, they are at the mercy of the middlemen.