homeeconomy NewsNot just onion: Bumper harvest, low prices for veggies force Maharashtra’s farmers to destroy crops
Not just onion: Bumper harvest, low prices for veggies force Maharashtra’s farmers to destroy crops
It's not just Maharashtra’s onion farmers who are protesting the sharp fall in prices. Vegetable and grain farmers have joined the march. While some are agitating for relief from the loss of crop due to unseasonal rains, others are seeking compensation for revenues lost due to bumper harvests.
It's not just Maharashtra’s onion farmers who are protesting the sharp fall in prices. Vegetable and grain farmers have joined the march to Mumbai to demand fair prices for their produce. While some are agitating for relief from the loss of crop due to unseasonal rains, others are seeking compensation for revenues lost due to bumper harvests.
Vasant Naik of Pimpalgaon Niphani village in Maharashtra’s Nashik district is desperate. He had planted cauliflower in December on one acre of 3-acre farm, spending over Rs 80,000 to bring the crop to harvest. But he has had to destroy the entire crop, because cauliflower prices had crashed.
Naik says, “When I inquired in the market, the price for cauliflower was 40-50 paise per kilogram. I couldn't sell my crop at that rate and I needed the farms to sow groundnuts so I destroyed my cauliflower crop.”
A few kilometres away, Satan Bodke is facing a similar problem with his coriander crop. He made just Rs 100 for his entire crop on which he had spent Rs 20,000.
Bodke says, “I spent Rs 20,000 on my crop. I got Rs 1,600 on selling it. Out of that I had to give Rs 1,500 for transportation to the mandi. So, I was left with Rs 100.”
It's not just cauliflower and coriander farmers who have this problem. Many farmers who sowed onion, maize, fenugreek and tomatoes are staring at a situation where transportation costs are higher than the price they get for their crop — all because they have had a bumper crop this year, and the supply glut has depressed prices to such an extent that it's easier, and cheaper, to destroy the crop in the fields itself.
The government does have a support mechanism that kicks in when prices crash but that support is restricted to a specific list of crops. Even in those cases, farmers say the support is often a day late and a dollar short. They want more special compensation packages, like the one the state has announced for onion farmers.
Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said the government will provide a compensation of Rs 300 per quintal for onions.
Even here, farmers claim the compensation is a drop in the ocean, given that the cost of production is at least Rs 15 per kilogram or Rs 1,500 per quintal. They add that they are frustrated that the government has not given a thought to farmers who grow vegetables like cauliflower, tomatoes, coriander and fenugreek.
Farmers say that lack of reasonably priced cold storages and processing units force the farmers to either sell their crop at throw away prices or destroy it. Farmers say the government intervenes at the last stage. They expect the government to inform them about the possibility of bumper production of a crop in advance so that they can decide accordingly. But, they say that this almost never happens and farmers end up bearing the brunt of this approach of the government.
(Edited by : Pradeep John)
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