This year, a farmer in Madhya Pradesh claimed to have marketed tomatoes worth Rs. 8 crores. The state Agriculture Minister visited his home as a result of this. Farmers, on the other hand, are discarding tomatoes on the road in various regions across the state due to poor prices.
Minister’s Interview with the Farmer
Minister Kamal Patel arrived at Sirkamba village, Harda district, his home district, to meet and interview Madhusudan Dhakad, the wonder farmer. Dhakad claims to have grown chilies on 60 acres of his property, tomatoes on 70 acres, and ginger on 30 acres. He abandoned traditional crops such as wheat and soybeans, indicating to the minister that this was what had worked for him.
The minister's interview with the farmer made the headlines, but farmers in other regions were not so fortunate.
NDTV spoke with farmer Sadu Verma, who stated, "Prices are falling because exports are being restricted. We're not even receiving a 20% price, so we're losing a lot of money. We've sold tomatoes for between Rs 600-700 per carat. We are now getting 80-90 per carat; we have been losing money for the past two years."
Not Only Tomatoes but Even Papayas Are also Being Sold For 3-4 Kg
Farmers in Jhabua are unhappy with the low price of tomatoes and have thrown them on roads. Not only tomatoes but also papaya, are offered for 3 to 4 kg. Farmers say that they can't even recover their input costs. Kalim Sheikh of Khargone is unhappy with his bumper Papaya.
"Production is good, but we only get 4-5 per kg, so we can't export. It's a tremendous loss for us because we can't even get the input cost "Mr. Sheikh stated. In 2016, a state-of-the-art mega food park was established in Khargone for 127 crores, but farmers believe it has been ineffective. PS Badole, Senior Horticulture Development Officer from Khargone, stated, "We are unable to export due to Covid-19. As a result, farmers are not receiving the Minimum support price."
Storage Issue of Perishable Commodities
The fruit and vegetable industry has risen by six to eight percent every year. However, they claim that there has been no improvement in the capacity to keep these perishable commodities.
Madhya Pradesh has 163 cold storage with a capacity of 10 lakh tonnes, but the fruit output exceeds 75 lakh tonnes, and 31 districts out of 52 have no cold storage at all. There is a grant of up to 50% for cold storage under the Operation Greens scheme in 2018, but just 15 proposals from the state have been received to the Centre so far.
