Uncertainties in the market triggered by the pandemic have cast a pall over thousands of farmers who have cultivated ginger in Wayanad and parts of Karnataka.
Besides, low demand for the produce and crop diseases are reasons for poor prices, sources said. A sharp fall in export to Bangladesh and very few enquiries from north India have also contributed to the crisis.
An average of 30 trucks used to transport the produce from ginger growing regions in Karnataka to Bangladesh, but the number has dropped to five to 10 a day, said Praveen Antony, a trader from Chennai. The demand in the domestic market too is low, he added.
The spot price of old ginger in Wayanad on Saturday was ₹1,500 a bag (60 kg) as against ₹4,000 to ₹4,200 during the corresponding period last year. There is no demand for fresh ginger rhizomes in the Wayanad market, but it was trading in Periyapattana and Hassan in Karnataka at ₹700 a bag on Wednesday as against ₹1,200 during the corresponding period last year .
“The area under ginger cultivation has declined by nearly 20% this season owing to the low price of the produce from November to January. An average yield of ginger from an acre is 18 to 25 tonnes. It declined to 12 to 15 tonnes this season owing to poor rain in Karnataka,” said K.K. Mathew, a farmer.
P.V. Sandeep, a farmer from Meenangadi, said he had invested nearly ₹60 lakh on the crop on 10 acres of leased land at Sargur in Mysuru last year. But he could not recoup half of it owing to the low price and crop diseases.
However, around 20,000 farmers from Wayanad, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Palakkad have taken up ginger cultivation in around 80,000 hectares of leased land in Karnataka.
