Blockade hits movement of veggies to Delhi, prices fall

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, November 30

The blockade of NH-44 on the Haryana-Delhi border for the past four days has hit the transportation of vegetables from Karnal to Delhi. It has forced farmers to sell those in the local mandi where they do not get good prices.

Vegetables, particularly exotic ones, from Karnal fields are normally sent to Azadpur mandi and various hotels and other mandis.

But now, due to the blockade, farmers are not able to send those there. As those are perishable items, farmers cannot keep those for long in the absence of cold storage.

“The blockade has hit the transportation of vegetables to the national capital, forcing us to sell the produce in the local mandis. There, we get very less prices in comparison to the mandis of Delhi,” said Chander Parkash, a progressive farmer of Sanghoi village and chief of a farmers producers’ organisation under which 1,160 farmers are registered.

He extended support to the farmers’ stir, but said theymust allow the farmers’ produce to reach the national capital. He said that they used to sell coriander at Rs 10-11 per kg in the Delhi market, but now, they were getting Rs 5-6 per kg in the local market.

Earlier, fenugreek (methi) was being sold at Rs 15 per kg in the Delhi mandi, now it’s costing Rs 5 per kg at the local mandi. Cucumber was sold at Rs 20-22 per kg in the Delhi mandi and is being sold at Rs 18 per kg in the local mandi, said Mohit Sharma, a farmer.