While the prices of essential goods are skyrocketing in the market, what is ironical is that the farmers are still getting a meager sum of money for their produce. The vegetables that are sold at a price of over Rs30 per kg, fetch only a sum of Rs2-3 for the farmers that work day and night in their fields to grow those vegetables.
On a visit to the villges, The Pioneer found out that the micro-economics of cauliflower farmers at Najafgarh’s Dhichaun Kalan and Jharoda Kalan village has taken a hit as even after infusing a hefty amount of money and hard work, the farmers are unable to get any returns. The two villages which supply the maximum amount of cauliflower to the entire national Capital are complaining that their produce is being taken by middlemen in sabzi mandis (wholesale vegetable market) at a meager sum of Rs2-3 per kilogram which they have been selling to the vendors at Rs10-15 per kilogram.
Ramesh Dagar, one of the cauliflower farmers from Jharoda village, claims that the middlemen earn huge profits apart from the fixed commission. He said, “This year, I invested more than Rs55,000 per acre on my three acre land. Apart from the seeds and things required for cultivation, taking one tempo truck full of cauliflower to sabzi mandi takes Rs3,000. But in return, I got only Rs45,000.”
Another example is of Chandrabhan Shaukeen, Dhichaun village. He too invested around Rs40,000 in the entire cultivation process and got back only Rs25,000 after selling the vegetable in the mandi. The farmers, in order to keep it going, take loans from relatives and friends and spend a lifetime in its repayment.
Both Dhichaun Kalan and Jharoda Kalan, which together utilise more than 15,000 acres in cauliflower farming, are witnessing a decay of the vegetable and a huge amount of it is going to the cattle as there are no takers, laments Shaukeen.
Farmers who suffer the most are the tenant farmers, who cultivate lands on a contractual basis. They are bound to pay a fixed amount of money to the landowners even if they suffer a loss. There are around 80 per cent of such farmers working in the Jharoda Kalan, Dhichaun Kalan and other nearby areas.
Expressing concern over the improper vegetable rates at which it is sold in the market Bhoop Singh Tehlan, one of the farmers of Dhichaun Kalan said, “Sabziyon ka fixed rate nahi hai. If the Government decides a particular rate for the transactions made at sabzi mandi, this situation will not come up.”
According to one farmer Indersingh Shaukin, the Delhi Government can help in getting their produce exported. “They can export our produce as Mother Dairy does, so that it doesn’t go wasted. Though, Mother Dairy buys from us but not on a large scale.”
