With the agriculture sector in the State reeling under the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers’ leader and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) chief Raju Shetti has called for relaxation of the lockdown in rural areas after April 14.
Dr. Ajit Nawale of the All Indian Kisan Sabha, meanwhile, has urged the government to ensure middlemen don’t cheat farmers or consumers. He said the Agriculture and Marketing Department should start buying vegetables and fruits from farmers at fair prices and distribute them to consumers in a controlled manner.
Mr. Shetti said the dairy industry is suffering heavily, with daily procurement of just 50-60 lakh litres as against 1.2 crore litres.
“Given that most workers have been asked to stay at home, all work in milk cooperatives, dairy industries and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation zones has come to a standstill. Besides milk procurement, ancillary products like butter, paneer, lassi and shrikhand are in short supply,” said the former MP from Hatkanangale.
He said grape and mango farmers are suffering heavily as they cannot sell their produce in the markets owing to the lockdown. “A grape farmer is incurring losses as high as ₹3.5 lakh per acre as he is unable to take his ready fruit to the market. Given that the number of COVID-19 cases in the rural hinterland has not surged as compared to Mumbai and Pune, I would urge the government to ease the lockdown after April 14 in rural areas at least,” Mr. Shetti said.
Alternative channel
Dr. Nawale said the lockdown must continue if the number of cases continued to soar. At the same time, to tide over the financial calamity farmers are staring at, he urged the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to consider an alternative distribution channel that would eliminate the middleman who was profiting from the lockdown by cheating farmers and end consumers alike.
“The government is doing a commendable job to control the spread of the virus. It also seems to know the pulse of the farmers, unlike the previous BJP government. Having said that, I would urge Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to crack down on middlemen who are making profits from this medical emergency,” he said.
Dr. Nawale said fruit farmers, especially those growing grapes, bananas and papayas, are in dire straits, each personally incurring losses of lakhs of rupees. “Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the cost of bananas was decided at ₹1,200 per quintal. But today, farmers are selling them for as low as ₹350 per quintal, which translates to a paltry ₹5 per dozen. Middlemen are purchasing grapes from farmers for as low as ₹12-15 per kg and selling them in urban pockets for inflated prices of ₹400-500 per kg,” he said.
He said that in one village near Sakri in Dhule, farmers have been pushed to the brink of despair and are contemplating suicide. It was imperative that the government save fruit farmers by purchasing produce like grapes and bananas, which would perish if the farmers were not able to sell it soon, he said.
