leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Ajay Singh demanded from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to purchase garlic on MSP and provide free storage for those who want to keep their yield.
He appealed that CM Chouhan should stop harming farmers and close Bhavantar scheme to provide relief to the farmers.
The reason behind the significant decrease in the prices of garlic from Rs 5000 per quintal in January 2018 to Rs 1000 and Rs 500 within four months is due to Bhavantar scheme. As soon as CM Chouhan announced to include garlic under Bhavantar scheme the middlemen pulled the rates in the market.
Providing the loss which the farmer would incur over the yield Ajay Singh said that cost of producing garlic per bigha land is around Rs 25000 and the yield is 15 quintal. Farmers sold garlic at Rs 5000 per quintal three months ago which earned him a profit of Rs 2500 per quintal and after garlic was included in Bhavantar scheme the rates decreased to Rs 1000 per quintal and if Bhavantar scheme benefits are also added farmer would incur a loss of Rs 2500 per quintal and which is less than the investment made by the farmer.
The worsening conditions of the farmers have been witnessed in the rule of CM Chouhan who makes tall claims of farmer’s son and government of farmers and under these conditions they are forced to dump their yield.
In the past seven days seven farmers have committed suicide and one of the farmers have committed suicide in CM Chouhan’s constituency Budhni area.