The drumstick growers in the Aravakurichi belt of Karur district are a happy lot now with arrivals picking up along with the price. The special shandies in the region are flush with fresh arrivals that are now fetching a remunerative price for the growers.
Drumstick is grown on more than 40,000 acres of land both as a garden crop and field crop in Aravakurichi belt. The major drumstick producing areas include Tadakoil, Venjamangudalur, Santhapadi, Esanatham, Ammapatti, Koththapalayam, and 20 other villages from where around 20 to 30 truck loads of drumstick are despatched to various destinations every day. Traders from Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal come down to Aravakurichi and nearby areas routinely to buy moringa in lots at the special shandies that would come up on the roadsides.
“We feared that the harvest might take a steep dip because of the adverse climatic conditions in the flowering stage of the crop. But fortunately nature has been benevolent to us and we have seen as good a harvest like any good year this time and we are doubly happy that the price is also pretty good. One bundle of drumstick, weighing around 2 kg, fetches the growers Rs. 15 to Rs. 20 and that is a good thing,” said T. Palanisamy from Santhapadi village.
The current first season for the crop lasts from April to June and the growers are happy that at the initial stage itself the price is good. They hope that the price line should hold for the season, they said. “The price tag has given us traders a big surprise as many of us felt that the price would fall due to adverse weather conditions and such other factors. But that was not to be and the drumstick prices have got off to a steady start. At present, we are purchasing along with the local traders but soon many like us from the north and Bengal would arrive and we could not fathom what will happen to the price when they perhaps next fortnight,” says a regular trader Mohammed Aijaz from Gurgaon area of Haryana.
