Vegetable prices shoot up as Maharashtra farmers' agitation continues

Representational picture

Despite the Chief Minister announcing a loan waiver of Rs 30,000 crore to help 40 lakh small and marginal farmers, farmers' agitation is intensifying with the community across the state set to strike today, backed by the Shiv Sena Since June 1, farmers from Maharashtra have stopped supply of goods from their farms, due to which quantity of fruits, vegetables and milk has gone down in the market.

In a few places, especially Junnar on Kalyan-Ahmednagar Road, trucks carrying vegetables were set ablaze by protesting farmers. Also, tankers carrying milk were stopped and the pouches torn.

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Besides the supply going down, prices of vegetables too have increased over the past weekend. Tomatoes were selling for Rs 60 per kg on Sunday as compared to Rs 30 last week. "On Saturday, tomatoes were selling for Rs 120 a kg due to shortage in supply," said a vegetable vendor. The price of cauliflower has doubled from Rs 40 a kg to Rs 80.

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Another vendor, Jilajit Gupta (39), said, "We are suffering losses as people are buying less; and we can't even raise the prices, as then, vegetables will become too expensive for the consumers."

"Tomorrow (Monday) at 4 am we will be able to determine whether we will get enough stock of vegetables from the Dadar mandi or not," added Gupta.

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An official from APMC said that from Saturday 10 pm to Sunday 8 am, 331 trucks and tempos of vegetables had reached the Vashi market, and 326 had gone back to Mumbai and Thane markets with supplies.