Onion prices crashed by 79%, tomato 50%

Onion prices in Indore mandi, one of the largest in Madhya Pradesh, dropped by almost 79 per cent between February and May, while tomato prices slumped nearly 50 per cent during the same period.

This has fuelled farmer discontent which has now taken the shape of a 10-day long ‘village bandh’ across major north Indian states.

Though the impact of the strike has started waning in some areas as it entered the second week, in a few places it was still intense.

Agency reports said in Jaipur, prices of vegetables soared while supplies and procurement of milk was also hit in parts of Rajasthan.

There was stoppage of supplies in Sikar, Chomu and Kaladera while in Jaipur vegetable prices have shot up by 25-30 per cent due to the ongoing agitation.

In Mandsaur, where six people were killed in police firing on June 6 last year, only 200 farmers reached the local mandi to sell their produce on Monday, said an official.

In the Metro cities of Delhi, in 2018, which is expected Mumbai and Kolkata, data to boost farm production. showed that there hasn’t been The entire issue of remunerative any largescale impact on supplies prices and ensuring but experts said unless farmers get a basic income problems related to storage has also taken a political turn and management of over-supply with three major agrarian is addressed on a war footing, states of Madhya Pradesh, such angry reaction from Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh farmers is bound to recur. going to the polls in the

More so, when India is next few months followed by again staring at a normal monsoon the big general elections

next year.

Modi’s government’s notso-impressive handling of the farm sector which has less than three percent average growth in the first three years has given fodder to the critics to exploit the situation.

“I think more than anything else, it is politics which is at play, but yes at the same time, farmers have genuine concerns for which long-term solutions are needed,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist CARE Ratings.

He said hiking the minimum support price (MSP) and loan waivers are being talked about as a solution, but factors like market dynamics and health of banks are hardly being looked into.

“Farmers, too, need to realise that just like any other business, there are ups and downs for which there has to be some solution,” Sabnavis said.

Meanwhile, some report said that the impact of ongoing farmers’ strike has started waning gradually with the protest reducing to a few pockets of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh in its fourth day on Monday from over half a dozen states in June 1 as a section of the agitating farmers’ have threatened to withdraw their support.

Farmers supporting the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh (RKM), which has claimed to be represent 130 farmers’ associations across the country, have threatened to withdraw their support to reduce their mounting losses.