Almost every household in Anta has stocked garlic; they are even feeding their cattle garlic stems
Khajunwala is a small village that fall in the Anta Assembly seat in Baran district. The curious sight once you step inside almost any home is the garlic stocked in their stores. Why? Despite state government’s claims and prime minister Narendra Modi’s generous offering of increased minimum support prices, a large portion of their produce sits idle with them due to a bumper produce this year.
Savita Devi is the wife of Hanuman, one such garlic producer, who sowed garlic in 6-bigha land this year. Like other farmers, he ended up suffering losses, she tells DNA. With stock sitting at home, she peels off the garlic buds and cleans them to retail them in small quantities for some cash. “My husband along with his partner sowed garlic thinking we would harvest a rich crop. It was only afterwards that we realised that everybody had grown a bumper produce. We didn’t fetch much price from the procurement,” she says cleaning a garlic stem.
The couple has now switched from garlic and has sowed mustard and hopes that by the time next produce of garlic is ready, the market supply catches up with the demand for them to fetch a better price.
This story is not of a single cultivator, but there are a large number of garlic producers in Hadauti region who have burnt their fingers with garlic crop this season. Most farmers have reduced the Rakba (area) of garlic sowing this time. The stress is primarily on mustard as it is a cash crop and finds easy takers. “Almost everybody has reduced the rakba by at least half if not more and are waiting for the next season,” Savita’s neighbour said.
The garlic produce has touched the ceiling in terms of quantity and has hit the floor when it comes to its value in the market. There is so much garlic around that the stem of the garlic and the leafy part is being given away as a feed to the cattle to clear storage space at homes. In Bambulian Kalan village Panchayat, a small-time farmer claims there were discrepancies at the procurement centres and many cultivators did not get a fair chance to sell their produce.
Prices Crashed
Due to bumper crop, the market rate of garlic came crashing between Rs 5 per kg and Rs 8 per kg, while the government decided to purchase the produce at Rs 32.57 per kg under the market intervention scheme. In the month of May this year, sitting BJP MLA Pratap Singh Singhvi from Chhabra had shot off a letter to chief minister Vasundhara Raje on the policy of garlic purchase in state and had demanded relaxation in norms which he claimed was preventing several farmers from selling their produce.
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