Rain Or Shine, The Glow Eludes Growers Yet Again

But now, they are getting Rs 50 a kg, yet Ritik and Pawan are left sour. In any case, they have no choice but to accept what wholesale commission agents at Ghazi­pur offer them. Even during a supply shortfall, as at present, it바카라�s the grower who is being shortchanged. The 바카라�mandi rate바카라�바카라�the price at which they hand over produce at the mandi via a commission agent바카라�has them chafing all over again. The farmers are highly upset. For, while boarding their truck for Delhi, they saw TV reports pegging the tomato prices above Rs 100 a kg.

Not just Delhi, across the country the juicy vegetable has raced to unheard-of prices at Rs 80 to 120 a kg. The dizzying pace at which the red staple is burning holes in consumer바카라�s pockets had these tomato farmers from Himachal praying for more income than ever this season. That wasn바카라�t to be. 바카라�We are getting Rs 50 a kg for our best tomato. For the rate we heard on TV, we should be getting at least Rs 80 in the mandi,바카라� says Ritik. The gap between the anticipated income and real is not inexplicable to him: 바카라�Traders and retailers are pocketing the biggest profits the tomato has ever earned anybody.바카라�

Right now, Himachal바카라�s tomato farmers are among the few bringing their produce to wholesale markets, along with Maha­rashtra바카라�s. The tragedy is no different in western India: even when a Mumbai ret­ail buyer has burned Rs 100-120, farmers there get no more than Rs 50. The local tomato yield is less than half the usual, a farmer with, say, 2.5 tonnes as opposed to 10 tonnes last season, is again left with very little. In Ghazipur, a farmer could sell a 30-kilo crate of tomato to a wholesaler for Rs 1,500 on July 26 morning, depending on the quality and variety, but that is not his 바카라�profit바카라�. From this income, the farmer adjusts for expenses. Minus the Rs 60 바카라�gate fees바카라� paid to enter the wholesale market and a 바카라�cutting바카라� cha­rge (that some farmers allege is illegally ext­racted by commission agents) of Rs 50 per crate, the grower바카라�s proceeds shrink to Rs 1,390 per crate or Rs 46 a kg.

Even this is just the beginning of a spiral of charges, fees, costs and cuts the farmer incurs, raising tomatoes costs between Rs 5 and Rs 15 a kilo. Transpo­rtation costs Rs 80-90 per crate and lab­our Rs 3,000-3,500 per day in transit. Farmers further pay a series of 바카라�charges바카라�, legal and illegal, all along the highways they traverse, to toll agencies and bribe-­seeking cops. 바카라�Around 20-50 km from Delhi, after the Kundli border (off Haryana), policemen repeatedly stop us for bribes,바카라� says Sirmour farmer Vinod Kumar, the pradhan of Mangarh. 바카라�Some take Rs 100, others Rs 500.바카라�

Wholesale agents and tomato traders deny the farmers are under-rewarded. 바카라�When supplies are short, it바카라�s natural ret­ail prices rise,바카라� says Satish Gandhi, a trader at Ghazipur. Commission agents refute claims about them charging farmers a 바카라�cutting바카라� fees. 바카라�It바카라�s we who bear the brunt of wastage or spoilage,바카라� Satish adds. Many commission agents also wish for prices to fall. 바카라�If prices today were like last year바카라�s Rs 500 to Rs 600 per crate, I would have been happier,바카라� Satish says. Those rates, which are possible only during normal tomato supplies, would still have kept the farmer바카라�s incomes low but by sheer force of volumes helped traders earn more than today.

The supply disruptions, market analysts say, are the result of crop damage due to heavy monsoon rains and a lower area under cultivation because of a crash in prices three months ago. 바카라�Tomato is an open-field crop,바카라� notes Lakshman Singh, deputy director of the National Horticulture Board. 바카라�In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, rains have damaged up to 30 per cent of tomato crop. Trucks are stranded, so there is a movement disruption. In these situations, middlemen hike margins temporarily.바카라� Singh바카라�s colleague, Rajesh Arya, says the roots of the price spiral ironically lie in the price crash this summer. 바카라�India normally produces 18 million tonnes of tomatoes. We foresee a dip in the total sown area because farmers have shifted away from vegetables due to a free fall in prices just two months ago.바카라�

Wholesale inflation, for instance, moderated sharply to 2.2 per cent year-on-year in May, compared to 3.9 per cent in March. Retail inflation fell to 2.2 per cent this May. That바카라�s a record low, caused mainly by food prices (at -1.0 per cent) turning negative for the first time since 2001. The drop is particularly stark in vegetables (-13.4 per cent).

There is a mad design to the chaos in the tomato trade. It ensures that even if supply fails, while prices spiral, the tom­ato farmer cannot become rich, not even for one season. It also keeps the lower and middle-class customer on the margins of the great consumer market. Take Sharifula, who bought from a wholesaler 25 kg tomato at Ghazipur for Rs 1,300. His cost is lower on account of the variety and quality he picked, a choice driven by the Rs 100 peak in retail price for tomat­oes. As Sharifula sells his tomatoes on a pushcart in relatively less well-off localit­ies of east Delhi바카라�s Mandawali, he can exp­ect to raise no more than Rs 1,800 for the entire lot, or Rs 72 per kg. Some of his lower-quality stuff, damaged or marked, will sell for Rs 60, even Rs 40 a kg.

Indeed, the notion of market forces, as controlled by the trader-commission agent-driven mandi system, is by its very nature skewed. Sudhir Panwar, an agriculture expert in UP, says the problem with the logic that tomatoes are short in supply is that one can buy as many tomatoes as desired even today바카라�but only at Rs 70-80-100 a kg. 바카라�What sort of shortfall is this when there바카라�s full availability, only at a higher price?바카라�

Pradeep and Sanjiv Gupta, who bought tomatoes at Rs 50 per kilo at the Ghazipur mandi on July 26, will ferry their suppl­ies to Seelampur바카라�another east Delhi cluster of mostly working-class neighbourhoods바카라�where they will sell it on a pushcart. 바카라�I will mark up the price to Rs 60 a kg,바카라� Pradeep says. 바카라�In my locality, people cannot afford to pay Rs 100.바카라� There is a secret to his lower rates than the current peak: ordinarily, he would have picked better-quality tomatoes and slightly more in quantity, but now there바카라�s a dampener: the mandi commission agent바카라�s rate of Rs 50-70.

In Maharashtra, Shriram Gadhawe, who heads the Vegetable Growers Ass­ociation, traces the arc of the ongoing tomato chaos to the demonetisation last November. Since then, several other factors have intervened, sending the market into tailspin. 바카라�This year바카라�s tomato plantation is half last year바카라�s,바카라� he says, a problem exacerbated by new pests, viruses and diseases affecting tomato crops. 바카라�Erratic weather conditions have caused tremendous losses too.바카라�

Gadhawe brings forth the commission agents바카라� role in the reigning mess: 바카라�Over the past few months, agents have delayed payments to farmers.바카라� Delhi바카라�s Azadpur wholesale market for vegetables and fruit, one of Asia바카라�s biggest, has added another, albeit local, factor to the price hike. 바카라�Nobody is risking the journey to Azadpur, say, from Bangalore, a major source for the Delhi market. This is because two agitations are going on here among rival tomato traders,바카라� says trader Ram Baran, a member of the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board. The squabble is over space on the mandi바카라�s auction platforms. 바카라�One set of agitators are working below capacity.바카라�

Om Prakash, a commission agent, says it is impossible to curtail their 6 per cent fees바카라�the maximum they can charge by the rules바카라�but adds that the supplies from UP, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will arrive in about a month, when prices can be expected to ease. 바카라�Things will alre­ady be much better by Diwali,바카라� he says. He insists that farmers are rather better off today than a year or a month ago. Joginder Nath Vohra, a commission agent, notes that none will risk their money to bring a truck to Delhi in pouring rain. 바카라�The monsoon supplies from Himachal are usually more expensive anyway,바카라� he says. 바카라�The farmers are benefiting from the Rs 40-50 rate at Azadpur.바카라� By end-June, tomato retail price in Delhi rose to Rs 80 a kg, double of what it was for two months till then.

Within the mandi, on July 25 evening, prices at wholesale dealers from whom retail pushcart vendors and shopkeepers buy supplies, were as high as Rs 80. As tomato growers usually are small farmers with tiny plots, the commission agents point out it would be impossible for them to sell directly at markets or for consumers to buy directly from them. 바카라�The rate is higher than high right now,바카라� says Ashok Kaushik, a commission agent. 바카라�With fewer arrivals of new crop, the rate is unlikely to dip before October.바카라�

From Mumbai to Jhansi in UP, the tom­ato grower is not sending good tidings for the future either. Buddh Singh from Jhansi planted 4,000 saplings last winter on a family-owned plot that yields about 200 kg. He typically relies on buyer바카라�s agents visiting his farm to purchase the produce, but this summer nobody came. After ferrying it to a mandi 30 km away (which added to his costs), he finally threw away most of it. Tomato cannot be in cold storage for more than 28 days and will not last even a week in the open. 바카라�Buyers come to us only when they can profit,바카라� Buddh notes. This year, wiser from the experience, he sowed only 700 saplings, a tenth of the usual, only to find a massive price rally pass him by.

Not just this. Buddh바카라�s standing crop is wilting from inadequate rain, so he doesn바카라�t expect the price rally to end bef­ore October. 바카라�The going rate for tomato growers is Rs 40-50 in our area,바카라� he says. Why can바카라�t the farmer be paid Rs 80 when prices cross Rs 100? 바카라�The agents,바카라� he adds, 바카라�asked us to sell at Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 a kg or get lost this summer. We had no choice then and none now.바카라�

V.M. Singh, who heads the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Commi­ttee that is a new grouping of 170 farmer bodies across the country, says the government must stop 바카라�suppressing바카라� farmers바카라� incomes as a first step to dilute their haplessness before the mandi comm­ission agents. His recommendation: sho­uld fix prices of all agricultural commodities, including vegetables. 바카라�Mandi agents take as much produce as they want for a price they pick. The government should ensure constant, reliable rates for fresh produce too, not let prices fluctuate wildly,바카라� Singh says. This isn바카라�t done for vegetables and fruits, as the government cannot ferry perishable crops to buyers in distant markets, as is done for wheat or pulses. But, says Singh, the government can fix prices regardless, and enforce them through legal sanction. 바카라�Buyers at higher rates should be encouraged and consumer inflation should be subsidised by the government. Why suppress farmer바카라�s incomes and fire salvos against inflation from his shoulder alone,바카라� he adds.

One government agency, NAFED, does deal with fresh farm produce in a limited way, through a sole such branch at Azadpur mandi in Delhi. 바카라�There has to be a 바카라�middleman바카라� in the trade of tomato, like any other perishable commodity,바카라� says Yatendra Singh, branch manager. 바카라�The difference between the government and other middlemen is that we strictly follow public auctions, a rule many others flout. Secondly, middleman charge buyers a 6 per cent commission and costs in addition whereas we give farmers a two per cent incentive. That바카라�s why the private sector middleman never makes a loss.바카라�

By Pragya Singh with inputs from Zia Haq and Prachi Pinglay-Plumber