The formalities for payment of support price to farmers under a scheme declared on November 1 last year are in progress even as the Agriculture Department has recommended cowpea and snake gourd to be included for support price payment from January 1.
In a first of its kind exercise in the country, the State had come out with support price for 16 agricultural produce that included tomato, snake gourd, cucumber, bitter gourd, cowpea, beans, beetroot, nendran banana, garlic, cabbage, carrot and okra.
The department would bridge the gap between the support price and market price if the price of the produce is below the support level. The money would be paid from November 1 for those produce sold through markets under the Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralam.
Farmers had been asked to register through the website aims.kerala.gov.in under the scheme and nendran banana farmers in the district were among the first to see the price of the produce fall below the support level of ₹30 a kg after the scheme was announced. The price of nendran fell below ₹30 a kg in November and December.
An official said around 500 tonnes of nendran had been sold by registered farmers initially and that the process for payment of the support price was one. The official blamed the delay in payment of the support price to the delay in completion of the formalities.
Initially, around 6,000 farmers in Ernakulam district had registered under the support price system. Their registered crops included banana, pineapple, and vegetables.
Pineapple price fell to around ₹10 and ₹12 a kg in late November and December. The support price for the fruit is ₹15 a kg. A recommendation had been submitted to the government to pay support price for pineapple from January 1.
The price of snake gourd and cow pea too fell below the support level earlier this month and the process for assessing the payments had been initiated.
Aravindan, a farmer in Vengola, said he had registered with the department crops such as salad cucumber, cow pea, and snake gourd but had received prices above the support level. But he expressed optimism that the government scheme would come to the aid of farmers, who were in real need of the support.
