Madhya Pradesh: Farmers Throw Garlic Crop Into River
There have been several videos on social media which showed farmers from Madhya Pradesh throwing out or burning their garlic crops.
There have been several videos on social media which showed farmers from Madhya Pradesh dumped garlic into a river, while another showed farmers pouring petrol on garlic and setting it on fire in Mandsaur, MP which has the state’s largest garlic market. Several incidents like these have been reported in Madhya Pradesh in the last few months.
[https://twitter.com/i/status/1560297782237229056]
[https://twitter.com/i/status/1472149630657781761]
The price of garlic is so low that farmers cannot even recover the money they invested in cultivation. Jagdish Patel, a farmer from a village in Madhya Pradesh cultivates wheat, onion and garlic. This year, Patel grew garlic which cost him around Rs 90,000 to grow the crop. Garlic crops require special additives and the fields need to be weeded and graded by hand, which drives up the cost. Patel’s crop yield was around 4,750 Kg. However, the current market rate for garlic is around Rs 100-150 for 50 kg. So earned less than Rs. 15,000 on this whole yield. Which is less than the amount he spent growing it. Patel said that the harvest has been slightly low for the last three years but usually the prices increase when the harvest is less. But that is not happening and the prices are very low. Patel said, “I am facing yearly losses and wonder whether it is worth farming garlic. But I do not have any choice,”
Garlic is also the most important crop in the region. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had issued directives to export garlic and sell it all over the country after a review meeting of the district two months ago. After these videos of throwing and burning the garlic, there have been several demands by the farmers and they have written to PM Modi to allow garlic export in the interest of farmers. The protesting farmers said that if the issue was not resolved soon, they would agitate in front of the parliament along with the local MLAs.
