The farmers under the umbrella of the Gujarat Kisan Sangathan resorted to Gandhigiri to draw the state government’s attention to their plight. The farmers distributed 4,000-kg garlic free of costs among the poor at Satyagrah Chhavni in Gandhinagar on Saturday as part of their protest.
Despite healthy cultivation of garlic in the state, farmers allege they have to throw away their stock because of lack of help from the state government in terms of procurement.
Farmers allege that they are suffering a loss of Rs 14,000 per acre when it comes to garlic farming. They say that even the cost of sowing is not getting recovered.
Farmers say that the cost of cultivating garlic over a one-acre plot is around Rs 37,000, and the production is approximately 5,500 kg or 150 maunds. The cultivators say that this season, the price of garlic has fallen to a measly Rs 150 for one maund (37.32 kg), which means they get Rs 22,500 per acre of cultivation.
The Gujarat Kisan Sangathan’s national head, JK Patel, demanded that the state government must make immediate arrangements to buy the garlic stock via export or any other means to save the farmers from debt trap. “Farmers are not getting even the basic price in the market and are forced to throw away their crop,” he said.
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