Ranchi, Jan. 30: Over 100 farmers this morning dumped tonnes of tomatoes near Bundu on NH-33, 40km from Ranchi, to protest against poor prices in the wake of demonetisation and lack of storage and food processing facilities, ironically on the day state agriculture minister Randhir Singh tabled a Rs 5,375.22-crore for 2017-18 on this sector.
The highway stretch covered with tomatoes, the pictures of which immediately went viral on WhatsApp, was an embarrassing reminder for the state government that farmers were forced to trash their produce for the lack of infrastructure that could have helped process them into value-added food items such as puree, ketchup and others.
This incident comes a fortnight before the showpiece food processing unit in Nagri, a joint venture of the state government and National Dairy Development Board, is slated to start during the two-day Global Investors' Summit in Ranchi on February 16-17. The unit will initially focus on peas and tomatoes.
But, for farmers from the vegetable bowl of Bundu-Tamar, it is too little, too late. The long-pending mega food park at Getalsud near Ranchi, whose foundation stone was laid in 2009, has not yet started.
A Bundu farmer Budhu Bhagat, one of those who dumped his produce on the highway today, said when tomatoes sold over Rs 10 a kg in cities last month, middlemen offered them Re 1 or at the most Rs 1.5.
"Not even Rs 2. And now that retail prices are down to Rs 5 and below, no one is buying from us. I invested Rs 10,000 to grow tomatoes this season but have not even earned Rs 5,000. It better to trash crops in the field than incur expenses on labour and transportation," said the bitter man.
Another farmer Jagdish Mahto of Tamar said tomatoes were selling in haats below Re 1 per kg. "It's something that doesn't even cover our farming and labour cost," he said. "I also dumped my vegetable produce quietly last month in Tamar. Tomatoes, brinjals and broad beans (seem) have grown well, but we aren't getting returns."
He said demonetisation had also hit them. "Big wholesale buyers are citing cash crunch. Either you sell your produce for a pittance on their terms or you destroy it."
Many farmers said that they had thrown tomatoes on the streets earlier too, but not much notice had been taken of them.
Rajiv Kumar, director of state horticulture department, said this year Jharkhand witnessed bumper tomato production. "But, the demand is less than supply," he said, adding they were working out an action plan to channel surplus produce.
Though Kumar could not provide figures, a source in Jharkhand State Horticulture Mission said the state produced 38 lakh MT vegetables annually against a requirement of 30 lakh MT. "We have cold storage, but tomatoes can't be stored for more than two days. We need processing units," he said.
Birsa Agricultural University professor K.K. Jha rued that in 16 years, nothing much has moved in Jharkhand. "We urgently need processing units," he said.
