Tomato prices crash to ₹2 per kg in local market, growers worried
Farmers fail to avail benefits as they find the process ‘cumbersome’
The farmers should have sold their produce in local markets to get the advantage of the govt scheme as they can’t avail benefits if they sell the crop outside the state. JOGINDER BISLA, district horticulture officer
KARNAL: The continuous fall in tomato prices has left the growers in the region worried as they are finding it difficult to even meet the production cost. As per the farmers, there are no buyers of their crop and they are forced to sell it in Delhi at ₹3 per kg, besides transportation charges of ₹1.5 per kg.
The current prices which the region farmers are bound to sell their crop at range between ₹1.5 per kg and ₹2.
“This is the worst year for the tomato growers in this region as we are being forced to dispose of the crop at negligible prices,” says a tomato grower, Nirmal Singh of Dhanokheri village in Karnal.
“In the absence of enough local markets, we are taking our produce to Delhi and selling it at ₹3 to ₹4 per kg, besides transportation charges of ₹1.5 per kg,” he adds.
However, the much-hyped Bhavantar Bharpai Scheme (the price deficit compensation scheme for vegetables) set on the lines of minimum support pricetype (MSP) formula for potatoes, onions, cauliflowers and tomatoes — launched by the BJP government in Haryana last year to protect farmers from sudden fall of vegetable prices — has also failed to provide any relief to the farmers.
Most of the farmers either do not fulfil the required criteria or do not have J-form, which is mandatory to get the benefit of the scheme. Under the scheme, compensation is paid if farmers are forced to sell potatoes and tomatoes below ₹4 per kg and onions and cauliflowers below ₹5 per kg.
Moreover, to avail the benefit of the scheme, the farmers are required to sell their produce in their local grain markets and they cannot get the benefit if they have J-form from markets outside the state. As per farmers, prices of tomatoes are around ₹1.50 to ₹2 per kg in the local markets as compared to ₹3 to ₹4 per kg in Delhi.
“To avail the benefit of the scheme, we have to procure J-form, having details of the commission agent, but the buyers are not ready to provide the J-form,” says another tomato grower Raj Kumar of Ladwa village in Kurukshetra district.
The farmers are criticising the government for the ‘cumbersome’ procedure of the scheme, even as the government also fixed a deadline for selling their produce to avail the benefits.
Kurukshetra district is said to be the biggest producer of tomatoes and onions in the state, but only 1,408 farmers growing these crops in the district could get themselves registered for the scheme for 2,200 acres under both the crops, whereas there is around 4,500 acre land where only tomatoes are grown.
District horticulture officer Joginder Bisla says, “The farmers should have sold their produce in the local markets to get the advantage of the Bhavantar Bharpai Scheme as they cannot avail this benefit if they sell the crop outside the state.”
“The prices of tomatoes have indeed come down to ₹1.5 to ₹2 per kg in the markets of Kurukshetra, but the farmers have the option to take benefit of the scheme by getting themselves registered under it,” he added.