Elections 2019: Litchi-growing Farmers Earn Peanuts in Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Minapur (Muzaffarpur/Bihar): Shiv Kumar Singh, a litchi-growing farmer, is not happy despite the likely bumper litchi crop expected by the end of May, as he has already sold his medium-sized litchi orchard to a middleman for Rs 30,000 only, with a right to harvest it.

“We are not getting legitimate price for litchi because traders, middlemen and agents of exporters take advantage of uncertain climate conditions, and lack of storage capacity and processing facilities here,” said Singh, who owns a litchi garden spread across 1.5 bighas of land in Minapur block in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.

Another farmer, Hardeo Rai, pointed to his big litchi garden with flourishing crop, at a distance of barely 100 metre from Singh’s garden. The litchis are green, and will take at least 15 days to turn red. However, Rai did not seem content with it. “What is there to be happy about? After all, we will get a rate of only Rs 25 to 30 per kg of litchi,” he said.

Singh and Rai are two of the thousands of litchi-growing farmers in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts, who have been forced to sell their produce for much lower prices, as the fruit is highly perishable if not kept in a high-tech storage facility.

There are small litchi-growing farmers like Mukesh Yadav and Munna Mian, who personally take their litchi from the orchards to the local markets of Muzaffarpur town or to nearby state highways for sale. “We sell litchi by numbers, and not by weight here during its season. We get Rs 40 to Rs 50 for 100 litchis.,” said Yadav.

Ashok Choudhary, a manager of a large litchi orchard in Jhaphan, said “We have sold litchi orchard spread over three bighas of land for Rs 80,000 this year. What can we do? There is a problem in the market. We are aware that traders are earing four times what we earn by selling this litchi”.

Choudhary told NewsClick that traders, middlemen and agents of exporters from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata arrive ahead of the blooming, and purchase the orchards from the farmers. “They pay money in advance to litchi-growing farmers, and nourish the trees by regularly irrigating, and spraying chemicals and insecticides for quality harvest,” he said.

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Bhola Nath Jha, a litchi farmer, said that till date, the government has only given promises and assurances to litchi-growing farmers. “These promises remain in the files. Take, for instance, a repeated assurance to start a cargo service from Patahi airport in Muzaffarpur to help the farmers. It has never started,” says Jha.

He added that the changing weather has affected litchi cultivation. “We are struggling to maintain the quality of litchi that the exporters and the domestic market demands,” he said.

Vishal Nath, director of National Research Centre on Litchi (NRCL) in Muzaffarpur, said that for thousands of farmers, growing litchis is a prime source of their livelihood. “Muzafffarpur’s shahi (royal) litchi is famous for its big size, unique flavour, aroma and taste. It is not available anywhere else. But because of unpredictable weather conditions, its quality can be poor some times.”

According to a report by the Horticulture Department, there are 45,000 litchi-growing farmers in Muzaffarpur.

M Feza Ahmad, a professor at Bihar Agriculture University, in Sabour (Bhagalpur district), said that litchi-growing farmers can make more money if storage and processing facilities are made available for them in Muzaffarpur.

An officer from the Horticulture Department in Muzaffarpur admitted that so far, there is no processing facility.

Anwar Alam, a fruit seller in Muzaffarpur said that litchi may be a costly seasonal fruit in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, but it is very cheap here. “When we sell litchi at a rate of Rs 30-40 per kg, it gets sold at Rs 80-100 in Patna, Rs 200 in Delhi, and Rs 300 in Mumbai,” he said.

Dr Abdus Sattar of Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa, in Samastipur, told NewsClick that more than any other summer fruit, litchi has been affected by climate variations.

“Litchi’s size as well as its sweetness decreases due to variations in temperature. Litchi fruit requires dry wind for its healthy growth, but in the last few years, during April-May, when temperature should have been high, the weather was humid,” said Sattar.

Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district, also known as the 'land of litchis', along with its neighbouring districts, accounts for more than 62% of the country's litchi production, down from a high of 70%.

Muzaffarpur parliamentary constituency will go to polls on May 6 in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls.

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