Jaideep Hardikar

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The monsoon was good this year, the
climate perfect and the yield bumper. Sandeep Thavkar, 28, thought his tomatoes
would fetch a tidy sum.
 
 Used to growing the traditional
soybean or cotton, he had gambled on tomatoes on an acre-and-a-half of his four
acre farmland after seeing the crop fetch better returns for his neighbours in
Virkhandi, 65 kilometres from Nagpur, last year.
 
 But the prices crashed even before he
had begun harvesting his tomatoes, a local variety, in mid-December. In the first
week of January, 25 crates of his tomatoes, each with 25 kilos of the
vegetable, fetched just Re 1.20 a kilo.
 
 At that price, he said, he could not
recover even the labour charges, let alone the cost of transport and carting,
and the market agent’s commission. Not to mention his input costs and family
labour.
 
 After returning home on December 27,
Sandeep borrowed his cousin Sachin’s tractor. He drove it over his standing
tomato crop on which he had toiled around the clock with his wife, an elder
sister and an aunt for four months – planting, weeding, watering, standing
guard against pests.

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He did it partly in despair and
partly to cut his losses. “Tomatoes are harvested till March. I have already
spent Rs. 50,000 and needed to spend another Rs. 20,000 on pesticides and
labour to maintain the rest of the crop,” Sandeep said. 
 “That would have meant more losses. I
could see the prices won’t rise. I’d rather gamble on another crop today and
harvest it by March-April to make up some of my losses,” he said.
 
 Sandeep, who says a price of Rs. 10 a
kilo would have merely helped him break even, insists the prices began tumbling
after the November 8 note recall announcement.
 
 But local traders in Bhiwapur and
Umred towns, 20 kilometres on either side of Virkhandi village, don’t blame the
demonetisation entirely.
 
 “A bumper crop resulted in the price
crash,” Banti Chakole, 38, said at Umred
 
 mandi
 
 .
“Vegetable prices do fall in November-December-January every year, and this
year tomatoes are in abundance.”
 
 But he conceded that the prices
nosedived after November 8. “I have to say I have never seen the situation
this bad in my 20-year career.”
 
 “Vegetable prices go down around this
time of the year because of seasonality, but perhaps the cash shortage has been
an additional factor,” Dr. Ashok Kumar Lahiri, former chief economic adviser to
the Indian government, writes in a recent paper on demonetisation, part of a
series published by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
 
 Data from Nagpur’s Agricultural Produce
Market Committee shows a sharp difference in prices before and after the
demonetisation.
 
 Before November 8, Bandu
Ghormade of Chicholi, 50 kilometres from Nagpur, sold his tomatoes for Rs. 8 a
kilo – a little low, perhaps because of the glut. Today the price stands at Re.
1 a kilo.

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In 2015, tomato prices in
December-January averaged Rs. 15 a kilo for the
 
 desi
 
 variety
and Rs. 37.5 for the export (hybrid) variety. But between November 1 and
December 25 last year, the hybrid prices fell from an average of Rs. 29 a kilo
to Rs. 5.50 per kilo in 29 big markets across India, according to data of the
National Horticulture Board. 
 In Raipur, hybrid tomato prices fell
to Rs. 4 a kilo. The
 
 desi
 
 variety
sold at 50 paise a kilo in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur district, prompting farmers
to dump several tonnes of tomatoes on the highways in frustration.
 
 In Wardha town, 80 kilometres from
Nagpur, farmer Pramon Ranit parked his tempo in the middle of a busy square on
December 27 and gave away 400 kilos of his tomatoes free in four hours.
 
 The nine-acre farmer had grown
tomatoes over three acres, expecting to double his Rs. 1 lakh investment. But
when the traders offered Re. 1 per kilo, he decided to earn goodwill through charity
instead.
 
 On January 2, news agency ANI
reported that a group of farmers, members of the Yuva Pragatisheel Kisan Sangh,
gave away about 1 lakh kilos of vegetables, including tomatoes, free in Raipur
in protest against the demonetisation.
 
 In Virkhandi, Sandeep is wondering
what to plant on his forlorn patch, freshly flattened with a tractor. Should it
be the
 
 guar
 
 
 
 (a kind of bean), the Indian round gourd (
 
 tinda
 
 
 
 in Hindi)
or okra? Whatever it is, what’s the guarantee it will fetch a profit?
 
 “I’ll need to check the market prices
and take a gamble,” he smiles wanly.This article (slightly modified here) was originally published in The Telegraph , Kolkata, on January 7, 2017.

A bad tomato gamble with demonetisation as the dice

নোটবন্দি আর পড়তি দামের সাঁড়াশি চাপে বিদর্ভের চাষিরা

பணமதிப்புநீக்கத்தை பகடையாகக் கொண்டு ஒரு மோசமான் சூதாட்டம்

ବିମୂଦ୍ରୀକରଣକୁ ଗୋଟି କରି ଟମାଟୋର ଜୁଆଖେଳ

বিমুদ্ৰাকৰণৰ পাখাখেলত বিলাহীৰ বিপৰ্যয়

نوٹ بندی کے پانسے میں بری طرح پھنسا ٹماٹر کا جوا

नोटबंदीच्या फाश्यात फसलेल्या टोमॅटोचा जुगार

Virkhandi

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A bad tomato gamble with demonetisation as the dice

Vegetable farmers in Vidarbha had pinned a lot of hope on bumper tomato yields this winter. But a price crash coupled with the post-November 8 notebandi has left them with a sour aftertaste

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