The prices of vegetables with short shelf - life are rising.
A better infrastructure for marketing is required.
What is the status of vegetable prices in India?
Price of tomato is spiralling, along with other food items.
Tomatoes saw a sharp inflation of over 209.5% from 29.4%
The prices of onion and potato have increased in recent months owing to disparity between demand and supply.
What is the reason for high price?
The rise in the retail prices of tomato is being associated with low supply from key growing States.
Heavy rain in a few regions that damaged the crop and hindered transport as well.
The mismanagement in the supply chain is another reason for the huge gap in prices that growers sell perishable agricultural commodities for and what the consumer pays.
The cost of packaging, grading, transporting and fees, besides the margins of the middlemen, are some of the elements that determine the final price the consumer has to bear.
How can these issues be addressed?
Storage facility - Upgraded storage infrastructure will keep a check on price volatility.
India’s cold storage capacity at present is nearly 3.5 crore tonnes, which is short by 30 - 40 lakh tonnes, and it needs to be increased.
Transportation - There are 7,000 -8,000 refrigerated trucks plying in India, mostly transporting pharmaceuticals and dairy products.
Transport of perishable vegetables in refrigerated trucks could be one of the options that would help in better supply and availability of the produce.
Marketing - Creation of co -operative groups and societies are probably an alternative that could assist in minimising the marketing channel.
Co - operative farming - Most farmers in India have small landholdings, nearly 85% farmers are ‘small,’ who have less than 2 hectares.
Co-operative farming will stabilise prices and benefit consumers.
