Tension Brews Between AP and Karnataka over Ban on Totapuri Mangoes in Chittoor District

Vijayawada: Tension is brewing between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka over a ban imposed by AP on entry of Karnataka’s Totapuri mangoes into Chittoor district from June 9.

The AP government stated that its main objective was to safeguard the interests of local farmers.

The erstwhile Chittoor district raises Totapuri mangoes in about 1.12 lakh hectares with an annual production of around 5.5 lakh metric tonnes. such mangoes from other parts of AP like Guduru, Nellore, Kadapa etc are also taken to the erstwhile Chittoor district for mango pulp processing.

With huge production of such mangoes, nearly 43 processing units have been set up there over a period of time.

AP, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka witnessed a bumper crop of Totapuri mangoes this year.

Notably, the AP government has fixed the procurement rate of Totapuri mangoes at `12 per kg with a four-rupee subsidy per kg to AP farmers.

However, huge quantities of Totapuri mangoes arriving from Karnataka are being dumped in the Chittoor market. The companies processing the mangoes are forcing AP farmers to sell them at less price, four to five rupees per kg, claiming that they were getting mangoes from elsewhere at low price.

In this context, the AP government intervened and imposed the ban on entry of Totapuri mangoes from Karnataka to Chittoor.

Chittoor horticulture deputy director Madhusudhana Rao said, “Our government’s aim is to protect the interests of our farmers so that their produce will be taken up at fixed price for processing.”

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah addressed a letter to his AP counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu with a request to withdraw the ban. With the ban on mangoes from other states coming into effect from June 7, officials from revenue, police, forest and marketing departments were deployed at inter-state check posts adjoining Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to enforce the ban.

Siddaramaiah observed, “This abrupt and unilateral move has caused considerable hardships to mango growers in Karnataka particularly those in the border regions who cultivate Totapuri mangoes in substantial quantities. These farmers have long relied on the robust linkages with Chittoor-based processing and pulp extraction units for marketing their produce.”

“The current restriction has disrupted this well-established supply chain and threatens significant post-harvest losses, directly impacting the livelihoods of thousands of farmers.”

The Karnataka CM said such actions taken without prior consultation or coordination would run contrary to the spirit of cooperative federalism and lead to avoidable tension and retaliatory measures. “The stakeholders are already experiencing the pain and they could potentially disrupt the inter-state movement of vegetables and other farm products,” he said.

Siddaramaiah sought the AP CM’s intervention for immediate revocation of the ban and swift steps to restore the seamless movement of the agricultural produce in the interest of farmers’ welfare.

The AP government is learnt to have taken note of the issue, but is yet to come up with an official response.