Don’t be surprised if vegetables go missing from your plates for the next few days or months. With vegetables gone rotten in the fields, or lying unsold or unharvested across the country in the last few months due to the Covid-19-induced lockdown, many farmers are turning their backs on vegetable cultivation.

“There is 20-30 per cent drop in vegetable seed selling. Farmers are facing a number of issues, including transportation and marketing of vegetables, and hence, many are turning to cereal cultivation. The trend of maize cultivation (among vegetable farmers) is seen in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” Indra Shekhar Singh, Director-Policy and Outreach, National Seed Association of India (NSAI), told BusinessLine . He added that tomato cultivation will take a major hit, along with lady finger, pumpkin, and lauki. Also, there could be a massive drop in the cultivation of cauliflower (gobi) across India. Onion seeds have done well in Madhya Pradesh, and therefore, a good onion crop can be expected in the coming time, he added.

“As a result of receding vegetable sales, many small and medium seeds companies have been forced to restructure and lay off employees, while others have had to shut shop altogether. Covid-19 may prove to be the last straw that broke the backs of small and medium vegetable farmers,” Singh said.

According to Vegetable Growers Association of India (VGAI), vegetable farmers have suffered heavy losses during the lockdown and are not ready to suffer anymore.

“A big chunk of vegetable farmers in the sugar belt has already turned to sugarcane farming after suffering a loss in vegetable cultivation. This is going to affect the supply, at least, for some days. Farmers will start cultivating vegetables once the rates soar in the market,” said Shriram Gadhwe, President of VGAI. Horticulture farm producers incurred heavy losses as frequent lockdowns and closure of Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets hit them hard, he added. With the majority of APMC remaining closed amid the lockdown, farmers in parts of Maharashtra had to dump vegetables and fruits in garbage containers.

During the lockdown, some small farmers in Maharashtra joined hands to take vegetables and fruits to the doorsteps of housing societies, and farmers’ groups connected with housing complexes. As a result, profits earned directly went to cultivators instead of getting divided among middlemen and wholesale dealers, while consumers got better deals. However, these experiments worked well in villages located near the city fringes and were limited to a few farmers.

“Majority of vegetable farmers are small and marginal. They have limited resources and connectivity. There is no certainty about the lockdowns and closure of markets. In this case, farmers would not take any risk of cultivating vegetables,” said Babasaheb Savat, a farmer.

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