Mundu chilli farmers have started utilising the cold storage facility set up at Ettivayal in Ramanathapuram district. | Photo Credit: L.. BALACHANDAR
Thiruvadanai Nerkkalanjiyam Farmer Producer Company (FPO) had a turnover of over ₹3 crore last year and made a profit of ₹10 lakh. With about 1,000 farmers as shareholders in the FPO, its CEO N. AR. Vellimalar says they were able to make profit because they had utilised the cold storage facility set up at Ettivayal in Ramanathapuram district.
But there are numerous farmers in the district growing the GI-tagged ‘mundu chilli’ and yet are unable to demand the right price for the produce. December’s unseasonal rain has put mundu chilli farmers in a quandary. The chilli crop on Shanmuga Swami’s five acres has just started flowering after the waterlogged field dried up. The late flowering means late arrival of the produce in the market.
As many farmers are facing the same situation, the price, which is hovering around ₹200 per kg, may rise, say traders. And yet within a few weeks, the price may drop as the incoming produce floods the market, they warn.
Though Shanmuga Swami had a bumper harvest last year, he failed to utilise the cold storage facility at Ettivayal. If he had, he could have sold his produce when the price was on the rise.
P. Raja, secretary of Ramanathapuram Agricultural Marketing Committee, which runs the cold storage, says the benefits of the facility are slowly percolating among the farmers. But he admits that more awareness is needed for the farmers to tap the facilities being provided at the warehouse.
Any produce that keeps fresh between six to 10 degrees centigrade can be stored in the cold storage, which has been built at an investment of ₹10.22 crore. As the facility is an accredited warehouse, farmers get eNWR (Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt) receipt for storing chillies by paying a rent of ₹675 per month for one tonne of chilli. The eNWR, can be used as a finance, trading and settlement instrument. Farmers can easily get loans from banks, by producing the eNWR and avail finance options at comparatively lower interest rates.
For long, farmers in this belt have financed their farming activities by borrowing from traders at the start of the cropping season. When the produce is harvested, the farmers are forced to sell to the traders at a price fixed by the merchants. It’s a cycle that has been hard to break, say officials.
Ms. Vellimalar says, “as mundu chilli is more flavoursome than the long chillies and in the international culinary space it has a high demand, we are educating the farmers and procuring chillis from them and after storing it in the warehouse, through a contact in Bangalore we export it to major Arabian countries and also Europe.”
At a recent workshop, the Kisan Vikas Kendra, at Ramanathapuram, has stressed on the need for value addition and quality production in order to tap the export market. This is being exploited by another FPO based in Paramakudi. The FPO has bought a stem cutting machine and also a colour scanner, which enables them to give the consumer chillies that are stemless and of the same colour. “As the chillis kept in the cold storage retain the colour and freshness for a year, with this value addition when we make masalas, we are able to maintain the quality for the international market,” says a representative of the FPO.
As western cuisine enjoys the pungency of mundu chillies, farmers are slowly learning to demand the right price for their produce. “May be soon Ramnad ‘mundu chillies’ may make its presence in the commodity market,” says Mr. Raja.
