: The price of tapioca (cassava), a staple food in the High Ranges, has touched a high of Rs.30 a kg in the retail market owing to poor production and fall in supply from Tamil Nadu.
The price rose from Rs.25 a kg last week to Rs.30 this week. Its price was Rs.20 a kg a month back, said Rijesh, a retail vendor. The price of dried tapioca has also risen to Rs.70 a kg.
According to tapioca farmers, there had been a continuous fall in the price in the past two seasons hitting a bottom of Rs. 9 a kg last year. Farmers who suffered losses withdrew from cultivation resulting in poor availability in the market.
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Tapioca was one of the main cultivation in the group farming on leased and fallow land.
Paddy lands were largely converted to cultivate tapioca under group farming and there was bumper production in the last two seasons.
Farmers said the influx from Tamil Nadu had impacted the market for locally produced tapioca.
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They said tapioca from Tamil Nadu was of poor quality and weighed much more than the locally produced one. It was not commercially produced in Tamil Nadu till three years back.
Vegetable farms in the border areas later took up cultivation of tapioca to tap its market in the district.
Mr Rijesh, however, said the arrival of tapioca from Tamil Nadu had almost stopped now and there was poor supply locally.
The main production areas are at Adimaly and Thodupuzha, he said.
For local availability, traders have to pay Rs.24 a kg, which is exclusive of the transportation cost, he said. Ramanan, a farmer at Chenninailkankudy, a tribal area of tapioca cultivation, said large-scale crop damage by wild boars was the main reason for withdrawing from its cultivation.
Crop destruction by wild boar was reported in areas close to tea estates, the Cardamom Hill Reserve and the forests.