Systemic failure

Instability in prices of perishables must be addressed

Even as the retail food inflation rate continues to hover above the comfort level of the central bank, the wholesale prices of two key kitchen staples — onions and potatoes — have crashed below their production costs, causing widespread distress among growers. While some potato farmers of West Bengal, the country’s largest potato-producing state, are reported to have committed suicide because of monetary losses, many onion growers in Maharashtra are said to have lit bonfires of onion plants on the day of Holika Dahan (the burning of mythological character Holika) last week as a mark of protest against measly prices. What is truly worrisome is that though onions and potatoes, along with tomatoes, another perishable item of mass consumption, constitute the trinity of farm commodities notorious for perpetual and, more so, vicious price fluctuations, not much has been done to address this issue.

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