Gujarat Farmers’ strike: Vegetables back in supply after shortage

The supply of vegetables at Ahmedabad's main wholesale market is recovering after the initial shortfall caused by farmers' boycott of markets. Although prices dropped in the past two days, they are still around 50% higher than pre-boycott rates. Traders feel chances of things returning to normal rather than worsening, are high.

Traders said that while there's no impact on the supply of bottle gourd, cucumber, brinjal and other vegetables which come from other parts of Gujarat, supply from other states is picking up after witnessing a drop in the first two days of the boycott.

"The arrivals from other states are about 75% of normal on Tuesday, which is an improvement from about 60% on Monday. Things are more likely to normalise than turn worse," said Prajesh Patel, a leading trader at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in Jamalpur, the main wholesale market from where retail vendors buy produce to supply all parts of the city.

"Normally, we receive 25-30 trucks from Maharashtra every day. As the boycott began, numbers fell to about 5-7. Yesterday, almost 60% of the trucks arrived and today, the percentage has risen to about 70-75%," informed Patel.

Supply of green chillies from Punjab had come to a grinding halt initially, but a few trucks did reach Ahmedabad on Tuesday, said traders. In fact, the supply of onions from Nashik has increased. "Probably the farmers think that the boycott is less intense in Gujarat and so they might be able to sell here," said a source in APMC. He denied that there is any unusual shortfall in arrivals. "Normally the market is supplied by around 1,800 trucks on a daily basis. If the number falls to 1,600, it is not unusually low. Such fluctuations happen," said the source.

A vegetable vendor in Satellite area said that prices have risen drastically after the boycott. It is not that there is shortage of supply, but somehow the prices are still high. "Vegetables are highly perishable. In summer, they perish even faster, so rejection is also higher. In such cases, if farmers are getting good prices, they will prefer to sell," he said.

Rashtriya Kisan Sangathan (RKS), which had asked farmers to boycott markets, however, said that it has received reports of boycott from parts of Bhavnagar, Botad, Amreli, Jamanagar and Halvad. "It is up to the farmers. We are not forcing them to stay away from the market. Those who think that they cannot sustain any longer, are free to sell their produce in markets. The holding capacity of farmers is less and we understand it very well," said Bholabhai Makwana, president of RKS in Gujarat.

REASONS SUSPECTED

Farmers may not be willing to store perishable items which could be a reason behind the increased supply this week. With rise in price post-boycott, farmers may have been tempted to bring their produce to the markets. Traders say shortfall not exceptional.