The price of the ‘nendran’ variety of plantain is spiralling in the district owing to poor arrivals and rising demand.
After a year of low prices, the plantain touched Rs. 42 to Rs. 43 a kg at the Meenangadi market, a major market in the district, on Monday. The price was Rs.16 to Rs.18 a kg in the corresponding period last year.
The availability of the plantain has not kept pace with the demand. The size of the plantain plantations in the district shrank enormously following the low prices for the variety last year.
Agriculture Department data reveals that nearly 8,900 hectares of land has been utilised for plantain cultivation this year against 12,400 hectares last year.
Also, summer rain and heavy wind destroyed large chunks of the plantations, especially at Padinharethara , Kottathara, Muttil, Thondarnadu and Tavinjal panchayats.
As per the data available with the Agriculture Department, as many as 4.25 lakh bunched and non-bunched plantains worth Rs.5.49 crore were uprooted this season.
“During this season, the ‘nendran’ variety usually arrives from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. Some of it also comes from Wayanad,” M.D. Ibrahim, a leading plantain trader in Meenangadi said.
But the adverse climate in these plantain producing areas destroyed most of the farms, leading to scarcity in the market, he said.
“Though the price has increased considerably for the produce this year , many a farmer would not get the benefit of it as they had suffered a huge loss this year owing to the adverse climate,” A. Sunney, small-scale farmer at Murani in the district who had lost nearly 1,000 plantains in the rain related calamities, said.
Trading circles in Wayanad, a major plantain growing region in the State, say the situation is likely to continue, considering the low availability of the plantain.
