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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fall in greens' prices hits farmers

Fall in greens' prices hits farmers

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published Published on Dec 22, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 22, 2011
-The Times of India
 
Even though the residents of Guwahati have to buy their greens at exorbitant rates, farmers in the countryside are living in dire straits as the price at which they sell the vegetables have touched rock bottom.

Last week, farmers in Barpeta, one of the vegetable-producing districts of the state, had to jettison cartloads of cucumbers on the street when the price of the produce touched 60 paise per kg. Farmers said they had to leave the vegetables on the street because they were not able to recover the cost of transportation.

Sukur Ali, a farmer from Satra Konara village in Barpeta district, suffered huge losses because of fall in vegetable prices. Ali's five-bigha plot had a bumper harvest of winter vegetables including tomato, cauliflower, and cabbage among others. But the fall in price at the wholesale market has left Ali in the lurch. He was even unable to recover the expenditure he had incurred for cultivating vegetables on his land, leave alone make a profit.

"Cultivating tomatoes on a single bigha of land costs me about Rs 7,000. But the price in the wholesale market is so low that I am not even able to recover my expenditure. Many farmers like me have had to throw away vegetables on the roads because carrying them back to our homes would add to the cost," Ali rued.

The situation is similar in other vegetable-producing areas like Kharupetia, Bechimari and Dalgaon in Darrang district. Bechimari was in the headlines in October this year, when four farmers were killed in police firing when they were protesting against the low price for jute.

A few days ago, the streets in and around the wholesale market at Bechimari were littered with cauliflowers, cabbages and tomatoes thrown away by the farmers.

The cultivators blame middlemen and the inefficiency of the marketing wing of the agriculture department in controlling the price of vegetables in wholesale markets.

"Brokers are indiscriminately exploiting farmers. Middlemen buy and sell vegetables in the same market more than three times. As a result, the price is kept very low when farmers sell their produce to brokers. The brokers then sale the same produce to another set of brokers at a slightly higher rate. And the process goes on for more than three times in the same wholesale market," Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad president Hafiz Ahmed said.

By the time the vegetables reach Guwahati, the prices skyrocket. In the city markets, the price of 1 kg tomato hovers between Rs 25 and 30 whereas in the wholesale district market, it has touched 50 paise per kg. Cauliflower costs about Rs 15 per kg in the city, whereas farmers sell it for around Rs 1 per kg.

"There is just no effort at marketing agricultural produce. The day is not far when farmers of Assam will start committing suicides if they are unable to fetch fair prices of vegetables and other agricultural produce," Ahmed said.

The agriculture department said it has started taking steps against distress selling of vegetables by checking the brokers. "We are checking distress sale by activating our marketing units in vegetable-producing areas. We are also taking steps to check too much interference of brokers," an agriculture official said.


The Times of India, 22 December, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/Fall-in-greens-prices-hits-farmers/articleshow/11200663.cms


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