Desperate farmers in Madhya Pradesh's Agar Malwa, losing any hope of making profits, have left their orange crops on the roads to rot and for animals to eat.
Desperate farmers in Madhya Pradesh's Agar Malwa, losing any hope of making profits, have left their orange crops on the roads to rot and for animals to eat.
Unseasonal rains and hail storms in March have destroyed the orange crop which was ready and ripe for sale. Farmers who have invested lakhs are now being offered 50 paise to Rs 3 per kg of orange in wholsale market. Last year the farmers sold the oranges for Rs 20-25 per kg.
Disappointed, 60-year-old Sabbaji, told NDTV, "I brought three quintals orange to sell at the wholesale market, I just got Rs 140. How do I pay for the transport charge, as the money I have got does not even cover that."
Madan Lal Maru from Kanad village this year was expecting good returns from his orange produce from his 700 trees in 12 bighas of land. But with more than half of his crop destroyed, his main worry now is to how to repay a Rs 4 lakh debt.
"The traders we go to sell our crops to in the wholesale market say there are no takers for oranges right now, so they offer us very less money. The state government says they will give compensation but no one has come here till now for the survey," said Madan Lal Maru.
Adding to the woes of the farmers is this year export to Bangladesh has drastically gone down as the government there has hiked import duty.
Middle man Sajid Noor Ansari said, "Bangladesh government has almost doubled the import duty. So the 400-500 truckload of oranges that were exported daily from India has stopped. Because of that in local market the oranges are in excess and rates are low."