Editorial: Mango price crash distress in State

Mango prices have fallen across mango-producing states in the country, which will trigger yet another wave of distress among farmers. In Tamil Nadu, distressed mango farmers have decided not to pluck the fruits and let them rot as the prices are not enough to cover even labour and transportation costs. The Tamil Nadu government’s interventions have so far not been fruitful. The pulp industry is not willing to procure mangos at a good price, citing raging wars, which they say will affect exports.

Also, some pulp units are saying that they still have stocks from last year and therefore are not buying fresh stock. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the government has fixed the mango prices at Rs 12 per kg, including a government subsidy of Rs 4. In Karnataka, the central and state governments have come together to offer compensation for losses being incurred by mango farmers. The compensation will cover up to 2.5 lakh tonnes or 25% of the total production in the State.

Prices of several fruits and vegetables have been plunging time and again. Be it tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cabbage, or cauliflower, growers are losing money, resulting in the piling up of debts. It is sad to see tearful farmers letting their produce rot in the fields and orchards, or dumping it on roads, as they cannot even get it to the market. It is not as if prices crash only in India. They do in other countries as well, but their governments had the foresight to develop robust systems to deal with the problem and minimise its impact on farmers.

It is not as if the Indian government does not know the solutions. There have been multiple committees that have studied the problem and recommended solutions. The most obvious one is the need to set up temperature-controlled storage and supply chains for perishable products with the twin objective of boosting food processing and agri-business and reducing post-harvest losses. Moreover, the government has an ambitious scheme called Operation Green (like Operation Flood for dairy) to develop a value chain for Tomato, Onion, and Potato (TOP), which aims to stabilise prices and ensure supply around the year.

Ironically, farmers cannot rejoice in a bumper harvest due to the so-called paradox of plenty, as increased production could lead to plunging prices and mounting losses. On the other hand, bad harvests and crop failures will also invariably result in losses. When farmers suffer losses, they reduce the acreage in the following season, and if there is a rise in prices due to supply scarcity, the middlemen and intermediaries pocket the profit, leaving the farmers with the crumbs. Either way, if it is heads, the consumers win due to falling prices, or, if it is tails, the intermediaries mint money due to high prices.

There is more trouble on the horizon. The spectre of the US-India deal hangs over the agriculture sector as Trump is trying to arm-twist India into allowing American agricultural products to flood Indian markets at the cost of Indian farmers. Likewise, raging conflicts can affect exports of Indian fruits and other produce, and wily intermediaries use it to drive down prices. Climate change and extreme weather are another lurking danger that Indian agriculture is not fully prepared to deal with. Besides monsoons, farmers will also have to wait for the grand reimagining of agriculture that will assure profitability and long-term viability.