Farmers in the district are busy harvesting edible sugarcane ahead of Pongal celebration.
Retail sale
The black variety cultivated on a large scale commands a price of over Rs. 30 a piece at retail sale points.
An integral part of Pongal festivities, this juicy variety is sold in units of bunches, each with 10 pieces, in the wholesale markets.
Major crop
Sugarcane is one of the major crops in the district, but the edible variety is cultivated only for festival sale.
Sale
Unlike in the case of the sugarcane cultivated for sugar extraction that are procured by the sugar mills directly from the cultivators, the edible variety has to be marketed by the farmers through middlemen.
After two years of drought, water made available from the Bhavani Sagar Dam this year prompted a section of farmers to cultivate edible sugarcane variety. Sugarcane from Erode is marketed mainly in the markets in the Western region, sources said.