BIJNOR: Fearing heavy losses after cauliflower crops continued to sell at a dismal Rs 1 per kg for over a week at local markets in Amroha, worried farmers in the UP district have started destroying the standing crop with their tractors.
Farmers here usually sell their produce in local markets which supply it to large ‘mandis’ in Delhi-NCR and Uttarakhand. This season, the cauliflower crop was sown in over 5,000 hectares of land.
In Amroha, the same produce is being sold to consumers at Rs 10-15 per kg in retail markets, locals said, adding that this stark price difference usually benefits the “middlemen while farmers continue to suffer”.
Laal Singh Saini, a farmer from Amroha’s Mohammadpur Patti, said, “More than Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 are spent per bigha in growing cauliflower and cabbage. Wholesale prices were stable initially. It was Rs 30-40 in wholesale markets in Dec-Jan. But as supply surged, prices crashed. Now, farmers are being forced to vacate their fields.”
In Delhi, cauliflower is being sold at around Rs 300 per quintal, he pointed out. “But we have to pay a high transport price to take our crop produce to the national capital region which we cannot afford,” Saini said.
Kalyanpura village in Amroha is the worst hit. “Cauliflower proved to be extremely loss-making for us. I grew it on 8 bighas. To avoid delay for the next crop, we were forced to clear the field,” said Mahendra Saini, a local villager.
Jagatveer Saini, a farmer from the same village, added, “The cost of crop production reached Rs 10,000 per bigha. It includes ploughing fields, planting saplings, fertilisers, irrigation and use of pesticides. The crop is ready, but we couldn’t even recover the production cost…”
Amroha district horticulture officer, Santosh Kumar, said: “Last year, farmers got good prices for the same crop. That is why, the crop was grown on a large scale in Amroha this year too. Besides, farmers sowed it at the same time which is why, it was ready for harvest in large quantities. This affected the market, leading to the throwaway prices.”
