While tomatoes remain out of reach for many as prices continue to be high, the humble tamarind, which was coming to the rescue of many a tomato-deprived household, is also seeing an increase in prices.
As of Friday, July 21, 2023, the price of tomato was ₹110 a kg and ₹11,000 a quintal, while tamarind was ₹180 a kg and ₹18,000 a quintal.
However, farmers are not happy with the price of tamarind increasing. They say only brokers are getting profit from the price rise. Due to lower prices, high cost of processing, labour problem, lack of technology, and other reasons, tamarind growers are uprooting the trees and turning to other commercial crops in Tumakuru, Kolar, and Chickballapur.
Tamarind is grown in areas with moderate rain, such as Tumakuru, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, and Ramanagara. However, harvesting and processing this crop is a major challenge for farmers.
There is no technology for harvesting and processing tamarind and farmers do all these works manually. However, farmers are facing labour problems and the labour cost is also high for harvesting tamarind. They pay around ₹1,000 per labour per day for harvesting and ₹500 for helpers and collectors. As a result, most farmers are giving tamarind trees on lease at a price fixed on the basis of the yield.
Progressive farmer Totli Ramesh from Kolar district told The Hindu, “Earlier, in the tamarind season, brokers used to come from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to Kolar. But, in recent days, the number of brokers from those States has declined. Due to the labour problem and manpower required for harvesting and processing, we give each tamarind tree for ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 on lease to the brokers.”
Raghavendra, a farmer from Chickballapur district, said, “Tamarind is a seasonal crop and preserving the tamarind fruit is very important. Preserving the fruits unscientifically will affect the colour and demand will decrease in the market. But, there are no cold storage units to preserve horticultural crops such as tamarind. So, most of the farmers in our district have removed tamarind trees and shifted to other commercial crops.”
Attracting areca nut
Tumakuru district is among the major tamarind-growing districts, with the fruit being cultivated on more than 6,500 hectares of land. However, due to price decline, shortage of labour, and other problems, farmers are removing tamarind trees and shifting to areca nut cultivation.
Padmaraju, a progressive farmer from Tovinakere, Tumakuru district said, “In our region, tamarind is the major crop and almost all the farmers have tamarind orchards. The increase in tomato prices has affected the tamarind price now. In the Tumakuru APMC, the price of tamarind is ₹14,000 to ₹15,000 per quintal this year. But, last year it was only around ₹1,500. A few years ago, it was ₹35,000 to ₹40,000 a quintal. At the same time, areca nut price is around ₹50,000 to ₹55,000 a quintal. There is no support price for tamarind growers. Therefore, most of the farmers in our village have removed tamarind trees and are shifting to areca nut.”
“We are supporting tamarind growers in Tumakuru district through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The government should take a decision on setting up cold storage,” said Sharadamma, Deputy Director, Department of Horticulture, Tumakuru.
