Idukki: This harvest season, Kanthalloor garlic is fetching record prices for farmers. Garlic is sold at Rs 400 to 450 per kg at Kanthalloor market. Last season, farmers had managed to get Rs 250-300 per kg.
Harvested garlic is classified into three types; small, medium and large size. Garlic small size costs between Rs 150 and Rs 200. A medium garlic gets Rs 200 to Rs 300. Big-sized garlic is priced between Rs 400 to 450 per kg. There are 10 wholesalers dealing in garlic in Kanthalloor.
Traders pay farmers Rs 300 to Rs 350 per kg for the best garlic. Farmers of Kanthalloor buy seeds from these traders. Farmers are often given seeds as loans. The traders get this amount from the farmers when they come to sell the garlic after harvesting.
Manikandan, a garlic farmer, said that garlic cultivation is profitable if they get Rs 250 per kg. They can get more profit if it is sold in Vadukapetti in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, he said. There are 13 wards in Kanthalloor. Vegetables and garlic are cultivated in Keezhanthur, Kanthalloor, Kulachiwayal, Chengallar, Puthur and Perumana. There are farmers in Kanthalloor who cultivate on 25 cents to 2 acres.
Garlic is mainly grown in Vattavada and Kanthalloor in Kerala. Chanthan, a 68-year-old farmer of Kanthalloor, said that although garlic cultivation is profitable, wild elephants frequently damage the farms. As the elephants walk along the farmland, the footprints of the elephants sink into the soil and form two-foot-deep pits. Water gets filled in these pits and garlic rots due to stagnant water. Apart from this, elephants trample on crops and destroy them, farmers said.
