Grapes cultivation, which has been practiced since last 30 years in Andhra Pradesh, has turned sour with the grape growers singing an obituary note for their entire produce. Due to unseasonal showers in the state, the growers have reported an estimated loss of over Rs 60 crore in just a week’s period. The produce was ready for harvest when there was sudden downpour coupled with speedy winds in the state which made the total produce to rot leading to a financial distress situation for the farmers.
The farmers complain that not even 10% of the crop was harvested when the rains hit the orchards. “The loss is about 90% which translates to about Rs 60 crore loss in the last one week,” says a progressive farmer from Ranga Reddy district in the state. Out of which, Rs 25 crore was targeted for exports of which only 10% has been achieved, C Kanaka Reddy, president, AP Grape Growers Association said. Grapes are grown in about 6,000 acres in AP covering Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mehaboob Nagar, Kurnool and Ananthapur districts.
In a letter to the Union minister of agriculture, the AP Grape Growers’ Association said that the recent heavy rains across western and southern India caused devastating effects on the grape growing community, specifically causing enormous losses to the grape growers located in Sangli, Karad, Bijapur, Sholapur and Hyderabad regions. The post effects of the continuous rains have resulted in berry cracking and rotting of bunches in the garden making the crop not usable to any market or consumers. It has been in practice that Hyderabad region starts harvesting the ripe grapes between March 10 and April 20.
The investment in grape involves huge amounts wherein every grower is bound to resort to borrowing either from the financial institutions or from private sources. apart from being the farmers himself committing all his economic resources to be a grape grower. It involves an establishment costs Rs 3.50 lakh per acre and thereafter it needs about another one lakh for maintenance of the garden as working capital in total each acre of grape is bound to have an investment of Rs 5.5 lakh as direct investment apart from the investment on land for growing grapes. At least each farmer has to pay back Rs 2 lakh to the banks.
On the export front, Naidu, MD, Sam Agritech, a leading exporter of grapes in the state, “We used to export about 40 containers of grapes every season. However, we are stuck without quality produce and could export only five containers.” The situation has left grape growers in such a state of affairs that the farmer can neither continue growing nor is able to uproot his garden as there is lot of capital investment involved in establishing the garden, Naidu pointed out.
“It has left the grape growers a total loss of the crop with an inability to face bankers and other lending agencies as we are not in a position to pay the installments and also to repay the crop loans being barrowed for cultivation,” he said. The growers have requested the minister to consider waiver of crop loans and the interests accrued on crop loans and term loans for this financial year and arrange for re-scheduling of the term loans help us to continue the grape growing activity.