Haryana vegetable farmers on verge of financial ruin: Deepender Hooda

Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda on Monday said vegetable farmers in Haryana have been pushed to financial ruin and were not being benefited by the government's price deficit compensation scheme.

Expressing concerns over the plight of vegetable farmers across the state, he claimed tomatoes, capsicum and other vegetables produced by them were not being sold and thousands of quintals of vegetables were rotting, forcing the farmers to feed these to their animals.

Hooda said the farmers of Tosham have launched an agitation against the government over this.

"Customers are buying tomatoes at Rs 20 to 30 per kg from the market but the farmer is getting only Rs 2 to 5 per kg. Vegetables like cucumber, capsicum, cabbage, potato, onion and chilli meet a similar fate as these are being sold at high prices while the farmer was getting peanuts," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a statement here.

He claimed the rates decided by the state government in its "Bhavantar Barpai Yojana" (price deficit compensation scheme) were so low that the farmers were not being able to meet the cost incurred to grow the crop.

Citing the example of onions under the "Bhavantar Yojana", Hooda said while the government was giving a deficit compensation rate of only Rs 6.50 per kg to the farmers, common people were buying onions at Rs 30 to 40 per kg. Sometimes the market rate of onions goes beyond Rs 100 per kg, he added.

The MP said while the rate of the particular vegetable was high when it reaches consumers, the farmers get a very low price and do not get adequately compensated for the price difference.

The Congress leader said while on one hand, the government was imposing curbs on paddy cultivation in some parts of the state and asking farmers to grow vegetables and other crops, on the other, those who grow vegetables are not getting proper rates.