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| Vendors sell vegetables at a Patna market. Picture by Ashok Sinha |
Patna, June 27: Vegetable prices have nosedived in the past few days owing to rain, which has led to a good harvest in the villages.
The daily buyer is happy at the fall in prices of all vegetables, except tomatoes. Barely two months ago, the prices had reached record heights.
Suraj Sharma, a customer at Anta Ghat, told The Telegraph, he was quite surprised” at the sudden drop in the prices of vegetables. “When I asked the price of a kilogram of nenua, I was taken aback to learn they are available at just Rs 2. We had been paying around Rs 10 even until 10 days ago for the vegetable. It is good.” Another customer Anita Kumari, said: “This rate will probably not last long but it is a relief for middle class families like ours. You cannot do without vegetables in the kitchen. This (the drop in prices) is bound to bring some smiles on everyone’s face.”
She added she was not expe cting such a drop “at a time when the prices of essential commodities are going up”.
The vegetable vendors, however, are not smiling.
This sudden increase in the produce of vegetables has brought down prices so much that they are now incurring “huge losses”.
Shatrughan Rai, a vegetable seller and a supplier at Anta Ghat is one such person. “In the past few days, the prices of vegetables, especially the green ones, have come down owing to the huge supply from the villages,” Rai said.
He said the price of bottle gourd (lauki) was Rs 8 a kg even a week ago but now the market price is just Rs 2. Similarly, the prices of nenua, the vegetable mixed with gram (chana dal) has also come down.
The overproduction is now affecting them. Suraj Rai, a farmer as well as a vegetable supplier, said: “The prices of vegetables have come down to such a level that farmers are even facing difficulties in meeting the input cost. For irrigating these vegetables, we have to pay Rs 100 per hour, which includes cost of diesel and water pump. Even the boatman charges Rs 30 for ferrying vegetables from the diara area to the other side of the Ganga. If you add the transportation cost it will add to Rs 50 extra from the banks of the Ganga to market area. While in return for selling 80kg of bottle gourd we are getting just Rs 160.”
Arvinder Singh, the director of state agriculture and horticulture department, said: “The vegetable growers have to develop their own mechanism with the help of local traders so that vegetables from the fields can be supplied to the market area in other cities.”
and town.
There is no mechanism of the state government to regulate the prices.”
Charts
Vegetable Old Price New Price
Bottle gourd Rs 8 Rs 2
Nenua Rs 10 Rs 2
Snake gourd (Parwal) Rs 16 Rs 8
Brinjal Rs 8 Rs 4