Farmers growing drum stick in and around Tiruvarangulam have been hard hit because of poor price in the market. Although they have taken all steps for raising the crop by sinking borewells and through adopting crop protection strategy, they do not get any assured price. “Abundant growth of drum stick is one of the major reasons for the poor price,” say the farmers of Kothakottai, Venkidakulam, and Maanjanviduthi which are the major clusters of drum stick in the district.
According to Kumaresan, a farmer, he is forced to sell the drum stick at Rs. 2 a kg. He complained that the middlemen exploited the vegetable growers of Tiruvarangulam, particularly the drum stick cultivators. He took to cultivating drum stick pining hope on the demand for the crop. “The absence of marketing avenue has been a major problem for the farmers of Tiruvarangulam,” he said.
He wanted some cost-effective marketing methodology be designed by the district administration so that farmers of the Tiruvarangulam block would benefit in a big way. “There is no taker for drum stick in the local market, but middlemen from other areas exploit us,” he says.
