Distressed By APMC Offer Of Rs.1/Kg Farmer Throws 1000Kg Cauliflower On Road
While the entire country is being held to a ransom by a blackmail of few thousands of Khalistani-jihadi propped fake farmers’ protest, in the Singhu Border in Delhi, we have the real distressed farmers throwing away their hard earned produce of 10 quintal of cauliflowers on the road because the farmer was offered by the APMC mandi registered traders a paltry Rs.1/kg for his produce which is worth Rs. 14 to 20/kg in the retail market as reported by the Times of India dated 03.01.2021.
A marginal farmer evidently upset over the low price offered for his cauliflower produce by the licensed traders on the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) campus in Pilibhit, UP, threw 10 quintals of cauliflower on the road for the needy without any charge, as per a report in TOI. It was his entire produce.
Mohammad Saleem who hails from Jahanabad town was offered Rs 1 per kg by the traders which did not even meet the transportation costs he bore to get it to the APMC campus.
The farmer said, “I have half an acre of land where I had cultivated cauliflower and spent around Rs 8,000 on seeds, cultivation, irrigation, fertilisers, etc. In addition, I had to bear harvesting and transportation costs worth Rs 4,000.
The retail price of cauliflower at present is Rs 12 to 14 per kg and I was expecting at least Rs 8 per kg for my produce. When I was offered a mere Re 1 per kg, I had no option but to throw away all my produce to save the transportation cost to bring it back home.“The loss has put my family, comprising a 60-year-old mother, younger brother, wife and two school-going children, on the edge of starvation. My brother and I will now have to take up some labour work to provide for the family.”
The APMC Secy Vijay Balyan reportedly said, “The prices of vegetables are normally governed by the volume of supply although the traders had a tendency of earning the major part of the profit,” he added.
This shows the plight of average farmer who struggles to make both ends meet . One can fathom the despair of the man which forced him to throw away his entire produce. Ironically, the country is reeling over the politically motivated farmers’ protests against the new laws, which would actually aid the real marginal farmers to tide over the crisis in agriculture sector.
The larger law abiding civil society should come over and try to explain to the real small and marginal farmers that they are being misled by few leaders with vested interests in unison with powerful global lobbies inimical to our country’s interest. If we expect them to feed us, we have to at least ensure that we disseminate information directly to the farmers about the beneficial provisions of the new farm laws.
Notably, the Swarajya reported that in December last year a similar incident occurred where a farmer in Mayapuri village of Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district destroyed his standing crop of cauliflowers, as he was being forced to sell his produce at Rs 1 per kilogram.
Reacting to the incident in Mayapuri, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had instructed the Common Service Centre (CSC) team to contact the farmers in the area and one of them later sold cauliflower at Rs 10 per kilogram digitally.
The Minister stated that to save farmers from exploitation of APMC mandis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formulated new farm laws. The CSE team was instructed by the Minister to give information to farmers how they can sell their crops anywhere in the country, digitally.
RS Prasad tweeted, “To liberate farmers from this exploitation of mandis @narendramodiji has formulated new agricultural laws. I instructed the @CSCegov_ that other farmers of Mayapuri village should also be contacted and informed about the facility to sell their crop to any buyer in the country in a digital manner”.
He further added, “On receiving this information, many farmers of Mayapuri village who were troubled by the exploitation of the market came forward to sell their crop at a better price. Today, farmer Tanvir has sold the first consignment of 400 kg of cauliflower to the buyer of Delhi at Rs 10 per kilogram with help of @CSCegov_ and digital platform of @ agri10x,” he added
The central government should improve its communication system to highlight the truth of the exploitative regime of APMC mandis with their extortionist middlemen who offer pittance to the farmers while make a huge profit by selling the produce in retail markets at very high prices.
If the new farm laws are implemented the marginal farmers would gain the most and their income would increase substantially to make agriculture a viable profession and also help in diversifying the sector by giving a fillip to the agro-based small scale industries, thus making Bharat Atma Nirbhar.
Source Of Image: Times Of India
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