Vegetables become costlier in Bengaluru as rain destroys crops

Vegetable prices have skyrocketed by up to 40% after incessant rains over the last two weeks destroyed crops, hitting supply. The meagre produce arriving at the markets are also of poor quality.

The retail price of tomatoes has gone up to Rs 100-110 per kg (the vegetable was selling at Rs 80 on October 10).

Brinjal, cabbage and beans have also seen a considerable rise in prices. “Farmers have not been able to grow in recent weeks,” said Manjunath, a trader at KR Market.

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Bengaluru receives a majority of its vegetables from the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, a few places in Bengaluru Rural and Tamil Nadu. These are some of the regions worst hit by the northeastern monsoon.

As per the data shared by the Karnataka State Disaster Management Centre, between November 1 and 21, rains have caused extensive damage to agriculture and horticulture crops. When it comes to horticulture, Kolar suffered the maximum damage, as crops on 6,966 hectares were destroyed. It was followed by Chikkamagaluru (6,492 ha), Ballari (4,802 ha) and Chikkaballapur (4,351 ha).

Horticulture officials in Kolar said tomatoes in 3,363 hectares, potatoes in 2,416 ha and flowers in 448 ha were destroyed while farmers growing other vegetables also reported largescale damage.

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Vegetable prices have remained high ever since the commencement of the monsoon in June but appeared to stabilise in late September and October. Since November, consumers have noticed the short supply. Those who depended on apps are seeing ‘no stock’ notifications instead of the cheap prices for which online markets were once popular.

Janardhana Gowda from Chintamani in Kolar district said farmers were clueless about what to do next.

“The demand for vegetables is very high. For one box (15 kg) of tomato, the price has now gone up to Rs 2,000. But we do not have produce to supply. Last year, I harvested 300 bags of brinjal, but couldn’t manage to get 10 bags this year,” he added.

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About 80% of onions and 50% of potatoes arriving at the markets are damaged, traders in Yashwantpur said. “While the onion-growing season is almost over in Karnataka, the supply from other states has not been great either,” said C Udayashankar, secretary, Onion and Potato Traders Association, Yeshwantpur.

Lakshmikanth, an onion-grower from Chitradurga, said, “This was the last batch of onions for this year, but as they are all disease-ridden (due to rain), farmers are not even bagging them to save cost.” The price of one bag of onions (50 kg) has come down to Rs 1,000 per bag from Rs 1,300-1,500 a month ago while a bag of potatoes costs Rs 700-1,000 at the Yeshwantpur market.

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