Drastic fall in vegetable prices put Belagavi farmers in trouble

BELAGAVI: Farmers are facing huge loss due to heavy drop in the vegetable rates in the fast two- three weeks. Especially the rates of cabbage, cucumber and brinjal, tomato and cauliflower have fallen drastically.
Cabbage was sold to just Rs 2- 3 per kg in the Belagavi wholesale vegetable market on Tuesday. It was the same rate for cabbage on Sunday too.Many farmers brought cabbage in lorries and tempos were struggling to manage transport cost. Three weeks ago, the cabbage rates were around Rs 15-20 per kg.
When cabbage sold at the lowest cost, the cucumber also not yielded better response. Cucumber was sold to Rs 6-8 per kg. Tomato rates were crossed Rs 35 per kg two weeks ago, have downed to Rs 10-12. Similarly, the rates of brinjal also have gone down to Rs 10-13 which were ranging from Rs 25-35 couple of weeks ago. Cauliflower was marketed for Rs 90-100 for per dozen.
Vegetables are largely produced in Belagavi district, especially in Hukkeri, Chikkodi, Gokak and Belagavi taluks and exported to Goa and many other states. Cabbage, cauliflower, brinjal and cucumber are produced in large extent in the district.
According to Umesh Khandagoankar, wholesale vegetable vendor, the rates have been fallen because of more produce is being arrived at the market because of high production. Vegetables are exported to Mumbai and Pune in large extent from Belagavi. But at present, those markets also facing similar problem of surplus amount of vegetables, he said.
Another problem for falling rates of vegetable is untimely rainfall in the region around 10 days ago. Due to rainfall, crops like cabbage and cauliflower have got damaged and farmers are making hurry to harvest them and bringing to the market before it is damaged completely. This has made surplus amount of vegetables dumping in the market.
Speaking to the TOI, Appanna Pati, a cabbage farmer from Uchagaon village in Khanapur taluk, said it requires to pay Rs 25-30 road charges to bring one bag of cabbage to Belagavi market from Uchagaon. No profit is left to farmers after selling the produce at present rate after deducting transport and labour charges, he said. Further, he said farmers usually receive high cost for their produce in summer but the thing are going adverse. “I hope the thing will be changed in favour of farmers in the next two weeks”, he said.