Vexed over poor price for produce, Farmer axes all his trees

TIRUCHY: Frustrated over the fall in coconut price, a farmer from Thanjavur on Wednesday axed 143 trees from his two-acre farm and urged the government to initiate steps to fix decent pricing for coconuts or suggest a profitable alternate crop.

Sources said that coconut was widely cultivated across Thanjavur district. Despite a good harvest, farmers were unhappy as coconut pricing was not adequate, which caused a heavy loss.

In such a backdrop, Ramalingam (57), a coconut farmer from Keezha Thirupanthuruthi near Tiruvaiyaru in Thanjavur district, who was upset over the low price for coconuts went to the farm on Wednesday and axed as many as 143 trees in his farm. “Traders procure coconut from farmers at as low as Rs 15 per nut and sell them between Rs 30 and 50 based on the size and traders make good money,” Ramalingam said.

Listing out the expenditure, he said Rs 40 per tree was being collected as charges for climbing and Rs 300 per day for each person for collecting coconuts. Thus when it was bought for Rs 15 per nut by traders, farmers end up incurring huge loss.

“Since there was no decent pricing for the past few years, I decided to quit coconut cultivation. With utmost frustration, I started to axe all the trees,” Ramalingam said and added that the government should suggest other crops, which would be profitable to farmers.