Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh): Unseasonal rain and hail storms in western Madhya Pradesh for the last week have not only spelt doom for the crops but also extensively damaged the harvest kept at the different mandis in many districts.
Garlic, which has been listed under the 'one crop one district scheme for Mandsaur and Ratlam districts is one such crop which was suffered the most as large stockpiles of the crop are present at the mandis of Mandsaur and Ratlam districts these days and Sunday heavy rain and hailstorm damaged large quantity of the harvest.
Many of the farmers complained that after Sunday’s rain, their harvest got wet and now traders also refused to accept the products which got wet in the rain. In such a situation, the farmers are being hit twice.
Farmers accused the mandi administration of negligence saying that if they don’t have sufficient arrangements to protect their crops from the rain, why would they be allowed to keep their crops there?
The farmers said that there was no space in the mandi shed, so why were vehicles allowed to enter the mandi premises? Farmers have said that about 20,000 sacks of garlic got spoiled in water.
“There is certainly great damage to the crop which was out in the open for loading (to markets) and the farmers also incurred massive crop losses,” said Shantaram Patidar, one of the farmers who brought his crop to mandi in Mandsaur.
“In the morning, the sky was clear and no one anticipated heavy rain in the afternoon. He decided to unload the harvest outside the shed, but in the afternoon it suddenly started raining, which got the product of hundreds of farmers wet,” Shantaram added.
Mandi secretary Parvat Singh Anjana said that we made an announcement that farmers should not unload their harvest in the open. If the produce gets soaked in the rain, then we will auction this crop as it has ‘dried under the sun’, he said.
