Lemon yield dips sharply to haunt growers even as price skyrockets to ₹250 per kg

Even as one kilogram of lemon is being sold at ₹250 in the open market and anywhere between ₹130 and ₹140 in the Farmers’ Markets, probably the highest price in decades, the poor yield due to prolonged scorching summer haunts the growers of Puliyangudi and the traders as well.

The Puliyangudi Lemon Market, known for supplying quality lemons to various parts of Tamil Nadu and even to a few neighbouring States, used to get 150 to 200 tonnes of lemon everyday from the growers of Kadayanallur, Chokkampatti, Puliyangudi, Vasudevanallur, Sankarankovil and surrounding areas. The farmers have to rely upon well water or deep borewell water for nourishing their lemon trees being grown on over 1,500 acres in this area where there is no river. These farmers would get water from the Karuppanadhi and Adavinainar dams only when heavy downpour brings copious influx of water to these two reservoirs.