Exotic vegetables find no buyers, growers destroy bumper crops in Himachal

Ambika Sharma
Tribune News Service
Solan, April 24

Valued as a low-calorie and diet-friendly option, the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 has drastically reduced the demand for the exotic vegetables in Delhi’s Azadpur market.

Hundreds of growers in Chail valley of Kandaghat sub-division of Solan district were destroying their bumper crop of exotic vegetables in the fields and using them as animal feed and farm manure.

Vegetables like broccoli, Chinese cabbage, lettuce, red radish, etc. had caught the fancy of the growers since the last about a decade as they were getting rich returns year after year.

The closure of the hotels and postponement of weddings in the lockdown has adversely hit their prospects this season.

While there were no takers at the Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi even those who managed to sell few boxes got a meagre Rs 20 per kg.

“Exotic vegetables like broccoli which sold as high as Rs 180 to Rs 250 per kg a year ago were now finding no takers at Azadpur Mandi in Delhi. A few boxes did manage to find some buyers where a meagre Rs 5 to Rs 20 per kg was the offered price,” laments Manish Thakur, a grower from Raher village in Chail valley where most of the families cultivated them.

To make matters worse, the growers have refused to sell broccoli, Chinese cabbage, etc. in the local markets as they emit a pungent odour due to the rising temperature after a day or two, informed Thakur.

He took to their cultivation about eight years ago after the traditional crops failed to give much dividend. Like many others he too invested lakhs in erecting a polyhouse spread across 4,000 sq m where half of it was dedicated to the exotic vegetables like Chinese cabbage.

While on a fair day, a kilo would fetch Rs 40 to Rs 60, the lack of takers for it,  this year has ruined its  prospects completely.

“Harvested from March end up till April when the markets are not supplied these vegetables from elsewhere, our crop has been fetching huge returns year after year and this prompted a large number of famers to opt for them,” informs Thakur.

He said despite being vegetables, people have not developed a palate for these items. Having failed to find any buyer in the last about three weeks, he is destroying fully-grown cabbages grown over 2,000 sq m area.

Thakur said the state government should come forward and rescue the growers who had raised greenhouses by availing loans worth Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

He demanded that a year’s interest should be waived off at least if no other measure can be announced as they have incurred total loss.

Growers from villages in Hinner, Dangheel, Jhajha, Kurgal, etc. said they were in a pitiable condition as some of them have raised their first crop after availing huge loans and government should come forward and extend some succour.