Farmers Movement Archive

Hit by lockdown, disappointed vegetable growers in west UP destroy standing crop

Meerut: Amid the ongoing lockdown, while sugarcane farmers are struggling to get their produce to mills, hopeless vegetable growers have begun destroying their crops to ready their field for the next harvest season. In the presence of Bhartiya Kisan Union leaders, farmers in a village in Shamli on Sunday, crushed their produce under a tractor. Farmers claim that with all modes of transportation stopped due to lockdown, there are no takers for the bumper harvest either in the local mandi or outside the district. Distressed farmers claim they have little hope to receive any compensation from the government. “We are helpless. The produce can’t be taken to any market and it is wasting in the field. We have now begun clearing the field for the next harvest. We don’t expect the government to compensate us and are left with no other choice than destroying it,” Kuldeep Kumar, a farmer in Aabadgarh village of Shamli district said. Like Kuldeep, several vegetable growers in the village destroyed their crops. “The initial investment we made was Rs 25,000-30,000 per bigha (.4 acre) and now there is almost no return. Currently, there is no market for our produce and we are now being forced to destroy it,” said another farmer who has a crop of cabbage standing in his 40 bighas (16 acres). BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said, “Vegetable growers and other farmers are in deep distress due to the lockdown. The government should step in and provide relief to them.”

The Times of India

2020-05-05

Meerut