: The cabbage growers of some villages in the Belagavi district are now feeding their fresh crop to cattle instead of transporting it to the market for selling as prices have crashed to the rock bottom. The farmers feel that that, under the prevailing circumstances, they will not even be able to recover the transportation cost by selling their produce.
The price of cabbage has crashed to Rs. 1-1.2 per kilo (or Rs. 100-120 per quintal) in some of the wholesale markets in Belagavi district. Before November, the same crop fetched Rs. 700-800 per quintal. This has caused tremendous frustration to farmers as they have spent nearly Rs. 50,000 per acre to grow the crop, with an average yield of 225 to 250 quintals.
The crash in prices is being attributed to a glut in the harvest as well as the shortage of cash caused by demonetisation, resulting in traders either desisting from procurement or quoting low prices.
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A dismal new year
Meanwhile, tomato growers in Raichur are in similar dire straits. Some of them took to distributing tomatoes for free on January 1. When a few farmers brought their produce in a goods autorickshaw to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) yard in Raichur, commission agents and traders refused to give them more than Rs. 1 per kilo. The farmers then distributed nearly six quintals of tomatoes for free in the Teenkandil locality of the city.
“We did not expect such a low price, which does not even meet the cost of cultivation, let alone transportation expenses,” one of the farmers said. “There is no point in taking the produce back to our village as tomato is a perishable commodity. We will also incur more transportation charges. So we decided to distribute them for free.”
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Problems in plenty
This year, tomato has been cultivated in 500 hectares in Raichur, and the yield has been good. But this has hardly brought cheer to farmers. Lakshmanagowda Kadgamdoddi, district president of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, alleged that the price crash was a strategy followed by APMC traders and commission agents, who purchase from tomato growers in other regions and States on credit. He said they ensured there was no demand for the produce of local growers, who are then forced to sell at whatever price the traders quote.