Officials assure Chittoor district mango farmers of fair price

The State government is committed to bringing justice for mango farmers, and they should shed all fears about the minimum support price for their produce being supplied to the pulp industries, asserted State Horticulture and Sericulture Director K. Srinivasulu and Chittoor District Collector Sumit Kumar. The two officials on Wednesday inspected three prominent pulp processing factories in the district.

The officials inspected the Jain Irrigation Systems at Gangadhara Nellore, Food Infrastructure Industries at Gudipala, and Sriram Foods in Chittoor. The duo held interactions with officials of the three factories and mango farmers, urging both to streamline procurement and ensure smooth operations.

Mr. Sumit Kumar said that the government started procurement of the Totapuri mango variety from the first harvest in June and this would continue till the last week of August. “As of now, close to 40% of the crop has been harvested, and it is expected to cross 60% by the first week of July. Given the bumper yield this year across multiple States, including A.P., Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, it has adversely impacted the demand everywhere,” the Collector said.

As a farmer-friendly move and to bail them out from the crisis, the State came out with a gesture of ₹4 a kg as a subsidy, this would be directly credited to their bank accounts, and the restrictions on acreage were also lifted. Under this arrangement, more than 85,000 metric tonnes of mangoes had already been supplied to various processing factories in the district. “We have deployed senior revenue and police officials at the pulp units and ramps to supervise the token-based procurement system. At present, this system could handle 1,500 tonnes per day in every factory,” Mr. Sumit Kumar said.

The Collector called on the mango farmers to strictly follow the schedule of harvesting as stipulated by the district administration and clarified that subsidy would be applicable throughout the season.