Low garlic prices leave bitter taste in Madhya Pradesh farmers' mouths, they dump crop into river

We are facing huge losses and so are dumping the produce, farmer Jamshed Khan said

A video of farmers throwing sacks full of garlic into a river in Madhya Pradesh, apparently due to low prices, surfaced on social media on Thursday, prompting calls to allow export of the commodity.

An outfit representing farmers in Madhya Pradesh said cultivators were getting low prices for their garlic crop and sought that the Centre allow export of the produce to give the market a boost. A video showing farmers throwing bags of garlic into the Parvati river from a bridge dividing Sehore and Rajgarh districts went viral on social media during the day.

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In the video posted on Twitter by the Kisan Swaraj Sangathan (KSS), a farmer can be heard saying they were throwing the bumper garlic crop as prices offered to them were abysmally low. The clip is from Ashta town in Sehore district and had been sent by one of its workers there, a functionary of the KSS said.

"Traders are purchasing garlic in the Rs 1-4 per kilogram range. However, cost of production per kilogram was Rs 30-40. We are facing huge losses and so are dumping the produce," farmer Jamshed Khan of Phulmogra village claimed. The KSS said the cost of production of one quintal (100 kg) of garlic was between Rs 2,500-3,000, while it was fetching just Rs 300 to Rs 600 per quintal. Cultivators led by Suryapal Singh Thakur submitted a memorandum to the Jawar tehsildar after holding a protest.

The memorandum, marked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, sought immediate export of onion and garlic in the interest of farmers. The cost of producing one quintal of onion was Rs 2,000, while the price it is fetching in the market is in the Rs 500-800 range, the memorandum said. Protesting farmers said they would agitate in front of local MLAs and MPs as well as the state Assembly if the issue was not sorted quickly.