Set up mango juice unit to save us, say Vellore farmers

VELLORE: Mango farmers in Vellore district are suffering a double whammy - marauding elephants on the one hand destroying large tracts of cultivation, lack of a juice factory on the other - forcing them to sell their fruits at a low cost to traders in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Due to these problems, mango growers are seeking immediate government intervention.

Local farmers point out that the site where the new bus stand in Vellore has come up was previously a mango juice factory. The unit was closed nearly two decades back due to administrative reasons, farmers said and demanded a new juice unit as they are at present at the mercy of traders in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to sell their produce.

Vellore has mango farms in around 50,000 acres and the fruits are largely sold to traders in Chittoor in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Farmers allege that their produce is given least priority as paramount importance is given to the cultivators from Andhra.

A Venketesan, Vellore district president, TN Vivasayigal Sangam, points out that Andhra Pradesh farmers associations protested against their juice factories procuring mango produce from Tamil Nadu four years back. “When loads from TN arrive in abundance, the price, which is usually around Rs 9 per kg, drops immediately by 1 Rupee. If you deduct the cost spent for cultivation, transportation, loading and unloading, a farmer will be left with just Rs 2 per kg,” he said.

Though there is a juice factory in Krishnagiri district, it has capacity only to handle the supplies from that district and from Tirupattur. “An acre of trees on an average yields 5 tonnes of mangoes. Based on that calculation Vellore produces around 2.50 lakh tonnes of the fruit. This production is enough to necessitate a juice factory in Vellore district,” said the Sangam’s youth wing state President R Subash.