Rayalaseema's Bumper Crop Paradox: ₹1-Lakh-Crore Horticulture Hub Offers Hope

For farmers in Rayalaseema, a bountiful harvest can be more damaging than a drought. In Madanapalle's tomato belt and Chittoor's mango orchards, the fear is not crop failure but a glut that crashes prices.

In July, 13,000 tonnes of tomatoes arrived in markets in a single day, pushing prices down to ₹14.70 a kg. Lower-grade produce fetched just ₹8 to ₹10. After deducting crate and transport costs, growers were left with barely ₹3. During the kharif 2025 season, farmers in Annamayya and Anantapur districts sold tomatoes at ₹4 a kg against a production cost of ₹6.

Mango growers face similar distress. In 2025, Totapuri farmers in Chittoor suffered rain damage but still had a bumper harvest, only to be left without adequate returns. An announced minimum support price of ₹12 a kg with a ₹4 subsidy did not reach the yard. In 2026, prices dropped from ₹120 in May to ₹30 in June.

Horticulture scientists point to three structural problems. The first is water. Rayalaseema is rain-fed, groundwater levels are falling and borewells are failing. A horticulture official in Rajampeta noted that farm ponds, check dams and micro-irrigation coverage remain patchy. When Handri-Neeva water arrives late, sowing is delayed and harvests bunch together.

The second is marketing. On peak days, as many as 300 farmers converge on Madanapalle or Punganur within the same hour. There are no prior buyers, grading is weak and farmer producer organisations are underdeveloped. Middlemen who advance crates dictate prices.

The third is logistics. Tomatoes have a two-day shelf life and mangoes about ten days, yet the region lacks cold storage units and pack houses even for minimum needs. Rajasekhar, a 38-year-old farmer from Gurramkonda, said that when transport is delayed or the yard is full, farmers must accept whatever price is offered or discard their produce. He recalled tomatoes being dumped on the Madanapalle-Punganur Road in 2025, not because of overproduction but because there was nowhere to store them and no buyers.

The ₹1-lakh-crore Rayalaseema Integrated Horticulture Hub project is designed to address these gaps. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman are scheduled to lay its foundation stone at Madanapalle on October 2. The project envisages ₹40,000 crore from the Centre under the Purvodaya scheme and ₹60,000 crore in private investment across 201 clusters in 10 districts.

Each cluster will have collection centres, grading facilities, cold storage and market linkages. An Indian School of Agriculture being set up at Ramireddypalli by Reliance will bring artificial intelligence tools and issue market alerts.

Kothur Babu, president of the Chittoor District Mango Producers' Association, said that if implemented in true spirit, the project would allow tomato farmers to grade and store produce for three to four days and send it to Chennai, Bengaluru or Hyderabad based on demand. For mangoes, it could mean pulp units, pack houses for export and direct linkage to processors instead of dependence on the local mandi during a three-week glut.

Kattamanchi Govardhan Bobby, chairman of the All India Food Processors Association, South Zone, said the project should compulsorily address farmers' issues first and those of the food processing industry as well. He also called for a separate Central Mango Board on the lines of the Tobacco Board.

Farmers recall promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 election campaign in Tirupati, where he said Rayalaseema tomato could become world-class ketchup if adequate cold storage facilities were available. He described poverty as not only the lack of rain but also the absence of value addition, and promised agro-industries. Manjunath, a 42-year-old farmer from Valmikipuram, said that with a double-engine government now in place, farmers are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.