Rs 442 For 400 kg Cauliflower! Maharashtra's Jalna District Farmer Destroys His Vegetables Overcome by Grief
While this shows the plight of one farmer, unfortunately, this is the case of most of them in Maharastra and the country.
They toil all day throughout the year waiting for this season of the year. It is the harvest time that farmers finally get the yield of their benefits, but not every one of them is fortunate enough. Overcome by the grief of not being able to get the right amount for his produce, a farmer in Maharashtra destroyed all his crops. In a video posted on Facebook, the farmer from Jalna district can be seen thrashing his cauliflowers with an ax. After working on the vegetables for months, the farmer was crestfallen on realising that 400 kg of cauliflowers would just yield him Rs 442.
While this shows the plight of one farmer, unfortunately, this is the case of most of them in Maharastra and the country. The recently concluded march by 40,000 farmers which converged in Mumbai's Azad Maidan was the addition of culmination of similar incidents over the years. Levied by the burden of loans resulting in debts, the farmers marched for six days from the CBS Chowk in Nashik to Mumbai's Azad Maidan to bring notice to the issues faced by them to the government.
Here is the video of the Maharashtra farmer destroying his own crops:
Here is the price chart of cauliflower in different districts in Maharashtra as shared by activist Suresh Ediga as of March 16:
Rs 90 per quintal in Islampur
Rs 200 per quintal in Pandharpur
Rs 285 per quintal in Nashik
Rs 350 per quintal in Kolhapur
Rs 850 per quintal in Mumbai
Rs 400 per quintal in Pune
In the last leg of the 180-km march overnight, farmers had come together for demanding loan waiver without any conditions, implementation of the Forest Rights Act, implementation of the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. One of the important components of the demands were fixed remunerative prices for agri-produce, with this feature in place the hardworking farmers can ensure they get a particular amount without fail.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 22, 2018 04:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).