Farmers of erstwhile Warangal district are an elated lot with chilli prices going up in the market.
The Teja variety of red chilli is being sold at ₹18,500 per quintal, which is the highest price in recent years at the Enumamula market here. Even the low quality ‘Chilli Thaalu’ is being sold at ₹8,000 to ₹8,500 per quintal compared to ₹5,000 last year.
Also, the price of No. 341 variety chilli has gone up to ₹14,500 per quintal, as against ₹10,500 last year. Similar is the case with the price of ‘Wonder Hot’ variety of chilli that is currently being bought by traders at ₹9,000 per quintal, as against ₹6,000 last year.
Enumamula market officials said about 633 quintals of Teja and 835 quintals of Thaalu varieties have arrived and private traders have bought the entire produce to export them to Madhya Pradesh, Maharasthra and Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to The Hindu , District Agricultural Technology and Transfer of Technology (DATT) centre director and senior scientist E. Srinivas said that chilli was the third major crop grown in old Warangal after paddy and cotton. This time, chilli was sown in an area of about 1,19,807 acres across the entire district.
Enumamula agriculture secretary A. Somaiah said that they would intervene only when price falls but as of now, farmers were happy with the price of the produce. “This is the time to harvest chilli. If the supply exceeds demand, prices may fall,” he said.
