Gurugram: Farmers often face the dilemma of selling crops at a low price in local markets or letting them rot in the fields due to a lack of demand or logistics. But those in six states could soon have access to a network of facilities helping them store and transport their produce to other states where they get a better price.
Haryana State Agriculture Marketing Board chairman Aditya Devi Lal has initiated talks for a common platform for farmers of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Assam.
The aim is to provide farmers with free stay, warehouse space, and cold storage facilities in the participating states where their crops have more demand.
Aditya and his counterparts from five other states met at Chandigarh Sunday to discuss modalities of the cooperation at a meeting, which was chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Haryana Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister J.P. Dalal told ThePrint that the idea is to prepare a platform that farmers can utilise to get remunerative prices for their produce.
In a press note, the Punjab government said Mann advocated the promotion of inter-state trade for the remunerative price of produce to the farmers as well as the supply of quality products at affordable prices to the consumers.
He asserted all the states must join hands in developing a common platform to buy and sell commodities, adding that this was the need of the hour to safeguard the interests of consumers and farmers.
“Bhagwant Mann said that this ‘farm to fork’ (farmers to consumer) approach and availability of goods within all the states will immensely benefit consumers and farmers in a big way,” the release said.
“The CM added that it is imperative to adopt this approach to ensure that farmers get a profit. Due to ever-escalating cost of farm inputs and lower returns, agriculture is no longer a profitable venture.”
Fight for a fair price
Aditya, a grandson of former deputy prime minister Chaudhary Devi Lal, told ThePrint that he first proposed this idea during National Conference on e-NAM: Operational Difficulties & Opportunities organised by the National Council of State Agricultural Marketing Boards (COSAMB) in Goa in June.
“I am COSAMB senior vice-president, but at 47, I am also the youngest chairman of a state agriculture marketing board in the country. When all members were expressing views on e-NAM (electronic national agriculture marketing) and how to ensure remunerative prices to farmers, I listened. Almost everyone had the same stories to tell — how farmers were not getting a remunerative price for their crops,” he said.
Aditya, who owns tangerine (kinnow) orchards in Sirsa, said he has the plight of farmers as they dump their produce on the roadside due to lack of demand or low prices.
He cited the examples of kinnow growers in Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan, and cashew farmers in Goa who could get better prices if they had the option to sell in other states where demand was more.
Goa Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Board chairman Prakash Shankar Velip told ThePrint that if influential agriculture marketing boards of states like Haryana and Punjab come forward and help farmers to get them better prices, “this can make a lot of difference”.
Citing an example of cashew produce to highlight the stark difference in price, he said, the raw cashew crop of farmers sell for Rs 120 per kg in Goa. “With a recovery rate of 220 to 240 grams of cashew from one kg of raw cashew, they hardly get Rs 600 per kg for the commodity that sells for over Rs 1,000 per kg in other states,” Velip added.
But, the farmers can remain optimistic. “Initially, agriculture marketing boards of six states have come for the meeting. But eventually, all the states will be part of the platform, which is also the idea behind the Centre’s e-NAM programme,” Dalal said.
Modalities of the cooperation
To make this idea a reality, Aditya convened the Sunday meeting where they discussed the modalities of the cooperation among the six states for the benefit of the farmers. This initiative, he said, would also promote inter-state trade and cooperation among the agriculture marketing boards.
The Haryana Agriculture Marketing Board chairman hoped that more states would join this platform and create a network of support for farmers across the country.
Citing examples, he said, when farmers in Sirsa and Fatehabad in Haryana, Abohar and Fazila areas of Punjab, or Ganganagar and Hanumangarh areas of Rajasthan fail to sell their kinnow due to the problem of plenty, they are forced to dump heaps of the fruit on the roadside to avoid rotting in the fields.
“They have no other options. A Sirsa farmer knows he can fetch a better price for kinnows in some metropolitan city and a Goa cashew farmer knows his crop can get a much better price in Haryana or Punjab. But there are few options for the lack of logistics in these states,” Aditya told ThePrint.
“However, if we can provide farmers with free stay at Kisan rest houses, space in warehouses, and cold storage for free, they can get a remunerative price by waiting if the prices are not good enough.”
Through his teens, Aditya said, he had the opportunity to learn from his grandfather and observe his politics closely. “He (Devi Lal) always had farmers’ interests in mind.”
According to him, one of the major challenges faced by the farmers was that they grow the same crops as their neighbours, without considering the market demand. This led to a glut of produce in the local markets, which drove down the prices.
“I have seen farmers selling tomatoes for Rs 2-5 per kg when consumers purchased this commodity for Rs 30-50 per kg.”
Kinnow farming in Sirsa had shown him the plight of farmers, Aditya said. “But if we can provide the farmers with some logistics like warehouses, cold storage, and stay facilities, they can easily sell in other states where they have a demand.”
In Goa, Velip said the issue was similar. Like cashew, the farmers even struggle to get a good price for copra (dried coconut), which sells for Rs 80-90 per kg in Goa, while its price in Delhi is above Rs 280 per kg, he said.
“At our level, we constituted a famers cooperative society last year and sold 3,000 tonnes of cashews and 1,500 tonnes of copra outside Goa for a better price. However, cooperative societies have limitations,” he explained.
Both Aditya and Velip said that the Punjab CM and the Haryana agriculture minister were enthusiastic about the initiative. The former said that the meeting was only a first step to building a rapport among the six states. “The next task will be to identify the markets and the crops that arrive at those markets,” he added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)