BELAGAVI: Farmers of Kadoli and villages surrounding Belagavi taluk protested under the Karnataka State Farmers Association (KSFA) banner demanding help for those who suffered a loss due to the price drop of cabbage and other vegetables in the wholesale market.
Farmers in Belagavi, Jafarwadi, Devagiri, Kednur and surrounding villages have grown cabbage and other vegetables in large quantity. But close to the harvesting season, there are no buyers of cabbage in the wholesale market.
It is priced at just Re 1 per kg, which is financially problematic because farmers invest about Rs 40,000-45,000 for the crop per acre, but they don’t even earn Rs 10,000 at the current rate.
Those who cannot afford to harvest and carry the vegetable to the market, personally bear the expenditure and are now decomposing the vegetable in the land itself to increase land fertility while some others have left the cabbage fields open for the sheep to graze on.
Farmer leader Appasaheb Desai said, “The agriculture sector has become a kind of lottery. Farmers are lucky if they get a fair price. Cabbage growers are trapped again and have suffered huge losses after not being able to sell their produce. Authorities should wake up and bring in fair prices for cabbage and other vegetables before farmers cultivate them and use them for stable farming,” he urged.