Move over onion, better-yielding garlic lures Madhya Pradesh's farmers

Bumper crop expected; prices could fall on higher supply

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh, especially from the western part of the state, have switched over to garlic after onion prices crashed last year to Rs 1 per kg. While there were some incidences of stocks of onions being dumped on the roads, the sowing area for garlic has gone up to 1.28 lakh hectare from 1.13 lakh hectare from the previous year.

"Onions fetched no price last year. Farmers had to lose even their input cost with no yield in onion crop,” said Amrit Patidar, a farmer in Ratlam.

Madhya Pradesh produces 30 per cent of garlic produced in the country. Government officials are also upbeat on the bumper garlic production in the state. However, there are apprehensions of a price crash this year.

State official claim that the state has maintained high acreage and high yield during the past few years and now it is the largest garlic producing state in the country.

According to the Madhya Pradesh horticulture department, garlic production is expected to touch 1.46 million metric tonnes this year, against 1.20 million metric tonnes in the previous year.

"Area (under garlic cultivation) has gone up to 128,000 hectare this year against 113,000 hectare of the previous year," said a senior official in state horticulture department.

Currently, garlic prices are hovering over Rs 6,000 per quintal to Rs 13,000 per quintal in Madhya Pradesh. "Prices are likely to fall this year as it happened in the case of onions last year. Farmers have a tendency to follow certain crops if they give better yield and dump the crop if it does not give expected returns during a particular year," said Ashok Baranwal, principal secretary, state horticulture department.

This year, there were incidences where farmers threw onions on roads as they did not fetch even the transportation cost of the commodity. Eventually, the state government had to purchase onions at Rs 6 per quintal from the farmers.

Garlic was once manna for farmers in western Madhya Pradesh; especially in Ratlam, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Shajapur, Ujjain Dhar, Chhatarpur, Chhindwara, Agar Malwa, Alirajpur, Dewas and some other areas. Neemuch district, in particular, grows approximately 14,000 hectare with a productivity of 126,882 metric tonnes. "Prices of garlic once touched Rs 5,000 per quintal during 1988. It was considered manna of western Madhya Pradesh," Mohammad Iqbal, another farmer in Lunakheda village of the Ratlam-Mandsaur area, told Business Standard. "Most farmers used to superscribe 'Garlic Kripa' on their bikes or tractor-trolleys,” Iqbal added.

Garlic cultivation has improved in the state due to the use of technology, the state government’s push to the commodity and switching over of the farmers to garlic, said senior officials.

Interestingly, according to the National Horticulture Board, Madhya Pradesh has become the leader in garlic production. "Few years ago, Gujarat's garlic production was (going) very well, now Madhya Pradesh has taken over," said another official in the state government.

Garlic production in Madhya Pradesh

Year	Production ( Million tonnes)
2012-13	1.15
2013-14	1.17
2014-15	1.17
2015-16	1.2
2016-17	1.46

Source: MP horticulture department