Urban Effect of Farm Protest: Prices of Veggies Shoot Up in Delhi, E-Groceries Remove Items off List

New Delhi: Textbook economics pertaining to demand and supply has made vegetables and fruits costlier in Delhi. Shortage of supply and exhausting stocks in the national capital’s mandis have resulted in surge in retail prices as the famer protest enters day four.

Trucks carrying vegetables, fruits and other food items reached Delhi on Saturday but one, the quantity was less than usual and two, with worries of the situation deteriorating Monday onwards.

"The mandis in Delhi have stocks of the vegetables and other items. The stocks are enough to meet the demand till Tuesday. After that, if fresh supplies do not arrive, the situation may worsen," said Adil Khan chairman, Azadpur mandi in New Delhi.

The retail prices of vegetables in the city's different areas are already up by 20-50 percent, with the buzz of the farmers' strike.

In New Delhi, onion prices are up by close to three rupees per kg amounting to Rs 14-16 a kilo in comparison with Rs 10-13 per kilo four days ago. Potatoes have also seen a spike of four rupees per kilo. Cabbage prices also shot up by more than five rupees a kilo.

Consumers will now also have to pay five rupees more for a kilogram of cucumber and tomatoes.

Farmers’ unions across eight states had launched a mega 10-day protest on Friday morning, shutting down supply of milk, vegetables and essential farm produce to mark the first anniversary of the Mandsaur demonstration in MP, where six farmers were killed in police firing last year. The strike is effective in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana and Chhattisgarh.

Multiple organisers that News18 spoke to said farmers will not take to the roads this time. Instead, they will simply not supply milk and vegetables to the state's markets. City-dwellers can buy directly from the villages if they so choose.

Among their major demands are one-time loan waiver, higher minimum support prices and higher prices for their produce in general.

The inconsistent supply has also resulted in e-groceries, like Big Basket and Grofers, doing away with multiple food items till stocks replenish.

Mumbai has not been spared from the effects as well. All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has asked farmers in Maharashtra to stop sending milk and vegetables to urban areas from June 7 unless the government accepts its demands.

Ashok Dhawale, president of the Kisan Sabha, said they have decided to stop the supply as the government has failed to respond to the crisis in the dairy and agricultural sector.

“The government has failed to act on our demands. So, we carried out the farmers’ long march from Nashik to Mumbai. But the government hasn’t done anything in the last three months on our demands,” said Dhawale.

Protesting farmers dumped vegetables, milk and other farm produce on roads and blocked supplies to cities in several states on Sunday as part of the agitation to press for their demands.