Lockdown 2.0: In cities, the prices of vegetables have shot up, but in the villages, they are rotting away
Two-thirds of the country's population is dependent on agriculture. But the farmers feel that they are not being listened to. If the government understands only the language of the industry, we shall put it this way — the crores of farmers of India haven’t stopped producing, but the business is dead as there are no buyers. Read about the pain of vegetable farmers in the first part of the series ‘Lockdown hits farmers’
Sandeep Singh Jat, a farmer based in Madhya Pradesh, used to produce tomatoes on a large scale. He used to sell those in markets from Bhopal till Mumbai. On an average, he gets 250 quintal tomatoes from his fields daily during March-April. On March 24, he had sold tomatoes worth Rs 1,250,00. Further sale of his tomatoes stopped due to the lockdown. For some days he tried distributing them to people for free, and then he left the fields for cattle grazing.
Prices of vegetables in cities have shot up three to four times, but in the villages, they are rotting away.
Tomatoes are selling for Rs 40 to 50 not only in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, but also in small towns. But Singh, who was selling tomatoes for Rs 5 a kg in bulk, is not even getting buyers. Summing us his loss, Singh has lost about Rs 25 lakh in these 20 days of lockdown.
Talking about this, Singh said over the phone: “I had 25 acres of tomatoes, producing about 25 tonnes of tomatoes (25,000 kg) a day, which would have lasted till about May 20. But then the work stopped due to the lockdown. I even wanted to distribute it for free, but that too wasn’t easy. Now, you can imagine the extent of my losses.”
During the lockdown, vegetables and fruits have been placed on the list of essential items, but due to the strict police administration and the absence of special guidelines for the initial two weeks, the farmers were unable to reach the mandis which even had to be closed in many places where the number of corona patients had increased despite the lockdown.
Exports have been stopped due to the lockdown. In many states, mandis have been closed too. The mandis which are operating are witnessing activities only during latter half of the day. Due to closure of weekly markets and roadside vendors, there has been a huge loss to vegetables and fruit cultivators like of tomato, green chillies, cabbage, capsicum, coriander, pumpkin, lauki, and cucumber.
The prices of vegetables in cities have increased manifold, but the farmers in villages are not even able to recover their cost. Similar is the condition of grapes, oranges, kinu, watermelon, mausambi and other fruit growers. Many vegetable and fruit producing farmers have ploughed down their ready crops or have pruned their orchards. Now that the lockdown has been extended till May 3, the remaining crop may also get ruined.
Arjun Maurya, a chilli-cultivating farmer at Belhara in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district, said: “Last year, we got Rs 50 a kilo for chilli, this time it is not getting sold even at Rs 10 a kilo because the buyers are not there.” The chilli of Barabanki used to go as far as to the Gulf countries, but this time the farmers are suffering.
Mahendra Kumar, the District Horticulture officer, Barabanki, said: “Last time, since the green chilli rate was good, the farmers had increased the acreage of chilli cultivation this year. This time, about 2,000 hectares is of green chilies. About 300 quintals is produced per hectare. It is expected that the district will produce 60,000 tonnes (600,000 quintals) of green chillies this year.”
Pratik Sharma lives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, he is also the chief executive officer and farmer of Green and Grain, a company supplying organic grains and vegetables to urban people. He has fields in Hoshangabad district, which had grown export quality cherry tomatoes, but now since the work is completely closed, his crop has dried up in the field.
Talking about the rate difference between the vegetable farmer and the customer during the lockdown, he said: “The sale of vegetables in Bhopal is entirely in the hands of the administration. The farmers bring vegetables to a place where big traders buy from them and then sell to the retail vendors. But the rate that filters from the end consumer to the farmer is the real bane.”
He added: “Tomatoes from my brother’s field are bought by the trader per crate for Rs 60-80 (20 kg, meaning Rs 3 to 4 a kilo) in Bhopal. But when they bid for retail traders, the crate goes up to Rs 600 — Rs 30 per kilo — which customers get for Rs 40 to 60 a kilo. Because the supply is very low and the demand is high.”
Sharma is suffering a loss of about Rs 60,000 a month as a farmer and Rs 1 lakh for his company. In many parts of the country, governments are delivering vegetables and essential items, while in most of the places, there is partial exemption to the local vendors. In India, there is a large-scale cultivation of vegetables in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal, and Bihar. In Azadpur Mandi, Delhi, onion comes from Nashik and green vegetables from Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. The jackfruit in the new Galla Mandi in Lucknow came from Siliguri. The potato of Uttar Pradesh goes from Assam to Nepal. Vegetables from Pune and Nashik are sent to several places, including Mumbai and even abroad.
Shriram Gadve, the chairman of the Vegetable Grower’s Association, informed: “The vegetable farmer in India was already troubled by the weather. They had incurred heavy losses in many states due to March rains and what was left got ruined in the lockdown. About 20,000 farmers are associated with us. The problem in front of everyone is of transportation. There is also an acute shortage of labourers.
The country’s supply chain is dependent on trucks, but most of the movement is curtailed due to the lockdown. According to traders, the trucks that are running are charging more fare because they do not get the return fare and have to deal with the police.
The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has set up the All India Agri Transport Call Centre to address the difficulties being faced in the transportation of vegetables and fruits so that there is a mutual coordination between the states. Fruits, vegetables, agri-inputs, manure, seeds, pesticides continue to be supplied. Toll free call centre number is 18001804200 and 1488 which can be dialled from a mobile or landline.
Sriram Gadve lives in Junar in Pune district of Maharashtra. About 15,000 acres of tomato is cultivated in 70 villages in Pune’s Ambay village and Parner area.
Gadve said: “The supply chain has been affected by the lockdown. Initially, the police had been very strict. Later on, the government did a lot of work but there is a problem because the goods are not getting out. Many of our vegetables used to go to the Gulf countries through Mumbai, but the closure of the port has stopped everything. Now, 100-200 containers are stranded in the sea, with grapes and vegetables.”
The work is going on from midnight to 10 am in Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi these days while the new Galla Mandi in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh is operating from midnight to 6 pm.
Rajesh Kumar, a trader at Azadpur Mandi’s business and CEO of Deep Vegetables Company, said: “Most of the supply of both vegetables and fruits is through the contractors, which is almost stopped these days. Since the demand is low, the arrivals are also decreasing. Less than half of the goods are coming this year as compared to April 2019.”
Lesser goods coming to the city means the loss of vegetable farmers.
Vegetables are selling only at the district level within the state. If the farmer cannot hold his crop in the field for more days, he is compelled to sell at a throwaway price in nearby villages and towns.
In Uttar Pradesh, Ramdhar Verma sells cucumber and lauki along the road in Tikaitganj town of Barabanki district nowadays. He said: “I have been cultivating vegetables for many years, but have never done the job of selling them by the road. This time, I had leased one acre of land and had sown cucumber and lauki. Last time lauki had gone up to Rs 40, this time people are not buying even at Rs 20. I have spent several thousand rupees upon my crops and even have to pay the farm owner, so I am selling along the road.”
Small and marginal farmers in the country mostly cultivate vegetables. If the cost and effort in the cultivation of vegetables is high, the profit is also commensurate, but this time the farmers are not going to recover their costs, let alone the profit.
In Rajasthan, Bal Munkund Dangi, a farmer from Badon village in Jhalawar district, 400 kms away from Jaipur, fed cows about 40 quintall cucumber (minimum price Rs 60,000 wholesale) in the first week of lockdown as no truck driver was ready to come to Jaipur fearing the police. And the cucumber has to be picked every day.
The cultivation of fruits and vegetables in India is continuously increasing. According to data from the Indian Agriculture Ministry, India had a vegetable production of 101.2 million tonnes in 2004-05, which rose to 184.40 million tonnes in 2017-18.
The other aspect is that the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world wastes production of about Rs 13,300 crore every year due to its poor supply chain, transportation and lack of adequate cold storage. The report was released a few years ago by Emerson Climate Technologies India, a branch of the US manufacturing and technology company Emerson.
Two years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture had admitted to a standing committee of Parliament that the country had a post-harvest loss of Rs 1 lakh crore every year. That is due to the absence of crop maintenance, in which the largest quantity is of fruits and vegetables.
The figure was made available by minister of food and processing industries Rameshwar Teli in Parliament. The report submitted in the Lok Sabha was prepared by the Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET).
In 2018, the government had also launched Operation Green to prevent these wastages. A number of provisions including special trains were also made in the budget for 2020-21.
Gauri Sarin, who is associated with the Bhumija Sangathan that is working with farmers’ organisations in several states of the country, said: “Looking at the numerous things during the lockdown, I think will start a new system in the coming time-such as transpontation and cold chains. If our cold chain were proper, the farmers would not have faced such difficulties.”
She lives in Gurugram and is working to build a bridge between the farmers and the city’s consumers during the lockdown. Several states have arranged special exemptions for farmers, especially for harvesting and vegetable growers, in lockdown.
Farmers’ organisations are also demanding special relief for the vegetable growers. Pushpendra Chaudhary, president of Kisan Shakti Sangh, said: “For the next one year, the farmers and wholesalers should be allowed to buy and sell directly anywhere outside the mandi system by relaxing the Agricultural Produce Marketing Act and the Essential Commodities Act. The food processing industry is also an important link to the food chain and therefore, they and the industries involved will also have to allow uninterrupted operations.”
Manoj Dubey, a trader of Azadpur and Ghazipur Mandi in Delhi, said: “The impact of the lockdown is on everyone, the vegetables cannot be held in the field and there is no place to store them elsewherething more to keep. We are up against an invisible enemy, so people are not coming out and the consumption is low.”
Finally, he added: “Secondly, the entire business of fruits and vegetables is finally dependent on local vendors (contractors and markets), the government has given a lot of leeway, but the market, farmers and consumers will suffer till they reappear.”