AHMEDABAD: Tomato growers from Kadi are in distress because traders — especially those coming from outside Gujarat — are refusing to buy the produce even at Re 1 per kg. The farmers say that traders were unwilling to buy because exports to Pakistan have stopped.
"Exporters usually came in large numbers. But this year only a few showed up," said Ramesh Patel a trader from Kalyanpur. "These are traders from Delhi, Haryana, and Punjab. Earlier, two trucks were loaded for Delhi, Punjab, and Pakistan daily, but this year only one truck is loaded every two days for Haryana and Punjab."
Interestingly, while farmers were finding it difficult to sell their produce even at Re 1 per kg, the wholesale price in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Ahmedabad, |ranged between Rs 2 and Rs 5 per kg. However, the retail price ranged between Rs 10 and Rs 20 per kg.
Patel said that farmers of the area want the government to come forward and purchase the produce at about Rs 4 per kg so that farmers are able to get the basic cost if not profit. Patel said that on Tuesday no fewer than 20 tractors had come to sell their produce but traders, locally known as kantawalas, were not willing to buy. Rajesh Patel, another farmer from the area, said, "Following tension on the border, purchase by traders has halved. Earlier, we were not willing to sell tomatoes to Pakistan, but now we hope that tension eases and we get some money." Kaushik Patel, also a farmer from the area, said: "The situation was so bad that farmers are now replacing their tomato crops with bajri." Patel said that in his 7 bigah of land he gets around 6,000 kg per bigah of tomato. This year the crop was good compared to the previous years, he said.
