Hit by a crop glut and protesting ‘insensitive’ attitude of the Gujarat Government towards their plight, hundreds of farmers on Tuesday dumped potatoes on roads in Deesa town near here.
"About 10,000 farmers took part in a huge protest rally organised in Deesa and threw potatoes, brought in about 100 tractors, on roads," Vinaykumar Gordhan Padhiyar, president of Gujarat Batata Utpadak Khedut Sangathan Samiti, a body of potato farmers, said.
Deesa, in North Gujarat, is a major potato producing area, where the crop's price has reportedly fallen to as low as Re 1 per kg.
"We took this step after the Government failed to take remedial measures in resolving this crisis. A memorandum containing our demands was submitted to Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani a fortnight ago," he said.
"We had served a seven-day ultimatum to the Government to take a decision on our demands. After end of that deadline, we waited for seven more days, hoping the Government would come to potato farmers' rescue but they failed to act."
"Hence, we dumped potatoes on roads to protest the insensitive attitude of the Government towards our problems," Padhiyar said, adding "We have asked all potato growers in Gujarat to do the same."
More than 12.50 crore kgs of potatoes kept in cold storages across Gujarat are fetching just Re1 per kg due to excess supply and low demand. Padhiyar said.
"We want a special relief package of Rs700 crore to enable the farmers to come out of this situation," he said. In the past, the Government had offered subsidy to potato growers to overcome such a situation, said Ganpatbhai Ladhaji, a member of the Samiti.