UP: Anguished Over Re 1/kg Offer By APMC Mandi, Farmer Throws Away 10 Quintal Cauliflower Produce 

A marginal farmer threw away his entire cauliflower produce, weighing 10 quintal, anguished over very low price of Re 1/kg by the market body. He allowed the needy and poor to pick and choose the vegetable from the road free of cost.

The farmer was apparently upset at the low price being offered for his produce by the licensed traders on the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) campus in Pilibhit.

The farmer, Mohammad Saleem of Jahanabad town, said he was offered Re 1 per kg for his crop by the traders, which was less than the transportation cost for bringing his produce to the APMC campus.

"I have half an acre of land where I had cultivated cauliflower and spent around Rs 8,000 on seeds, cultivation, irrigation, fertilisers, etc. In addition, I had to bear harvesting and transportation costs worth Rs 4,000," he said.

"The retail price of cauliflower at present is Rs 12 to 14 per kg and I was expecting at least Rs 8 per kg for my produce. When I was offered a mere Rs 1 per kg, I had no option but to throw away all my produce to save the transportation cost to take it back home," he added.

Saleem said that he would now have to take private loans on a higher rate of interest as commercial banks had been quite reluctant in extending credit facility to poor farmers.

Earlier in December, a similar case had occurred where a farmer in Mayapuri village of Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district had destroyed his standing crop of cauliflowers, claiming that he was being forced to sell his produce at Rs 1 kilogram.

After the news, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday had instructed the Common Service Centre (CSC) team to contact the farmers in the area and one of them later sold cauliflower at Rs 10 per kilogram digitally.

The Minister had stated then that to save farmers from exploitation from mandis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formulated new farm laws. Prasad had instructed the CSE team to give information to farmers how they can sell their crops anywhere in the country, digitally. "To liberate farmers from this exploitation of mandis @narendramodiji has formulated new agricultural laws. I instructed the @CSCegov_ that other farmers of Mayapuri village should also be contacted and informed about the facility to sell their crop to any buyer in the country in a digital manner," he had tweeted.

"On receiving this information, many farmers of Mayapuri village who were troubled by the exploitation of the market came forward to sell their crop at a better price. Today, farmer Tanvir has sold the first consignment of 400 kg of cauliflower to the buyer of Delhi at Rs 10 per kilogram with help of @CSCegov_ and digital platform of @ agri10x," he added.

With IANS Inputs