Dealing with a distress

To resolve the recurring crisis faced by growers of TOP vegetables, policymakers should build an institutional mechanism to ensure price assurance for farmers

- ALOK RANJAN

Recently, we read that the onion farmR ers in Maharashtra were suffering due to low prices of their products in the Lasal Gaon Mandi. There was a farmers' agitation on this issue, and the Maharashtra onion growers have been on relay hunger fasts. They are also marching from the onion-growing areas to Mumbai. Similarly, there is an issue regarding the prices of tomatoes where the farmers are barely getting Rs 7 per kg which is not sufficient to cover their costs. There is a glut in the potato market in Uttar Pradesh which is the largest grower of potatoes in the country. Recently, a news came that the farmers are getting less than Rs 5 per kg, which has got them agitated and, in various districts of the potato belt, they are taking to the streets to voice their protest. The UP government has responded by fixing the price at Rs 6.5 per kg, which has not enthused the farmers who are threatening to throw their crops on roads unless a minimum support price of Rs 10 per kg is provided to them.

Year after year, these three crucial horticulture crops, without which any Indian dish cannot reach the table, have been facing a serious crisis. It would be better to have a sustained institutional mechanism to deal with this issue rather than having knee jerk reactions which often are a case of too little and too late. One problem identified by policymakers is that of storage, but UP does not face this issue as there are 2,406 cold storages in the state, with an overall capacity of 14 million tons. These are all concentrated in the potato belt of UP but, still, the problem has not been resolved and, after every few years, this issue of steep fall in the price of potatoes is raised. There is no denying that the farmers of these three most important crops need a minimum remunerative price. It is also true that further work has to be done in developing modern storage, farmgate infrastructure and value addition through processing.