In Anantapur Farmers cultivating red chllies on more than 20,000 acres harvested nearly 3 lakh quintals of red chilies but are in financial dire straits due to a drastic fall in prices. Chilies which were sold at Rs 25,000 per quintal during the last crop year have now crashed to Rs 16,000 per quintal owing to overproduction in border areas in Karnataka.



The farmers have two options, one, to sell the chilies in the Guntur chilli market which is far away from the district. The second option is to sell their produce at Byadigi market in Hubli in Karnataka despite the low price. There are few purchasers in Karnataka, that too at prices 25 percent lesser than the original market price. So in the given circumstances, the farmers are exploring the third option of grading them and preserving them in warehouses.



The farmers have no warehousing facility in the district for storage. Again, they are forced to store their produce in neighboring Karnataka in Bellary, Hosepet, Byadigi, Hubli, Haveri, and Davanagiri areas. Having cultivated the crop with bank loans, payment of storage rent is an additional burden for them.



The farmers in the district have no warehousing facility and no minimum support price. They are at the mercy of market forces.

source : https://www.thehansindia.com/andhra-pradesh/anantapur-farmers-face-ruin-as-chilli-prices-turn-less-spicy-793722