Gujarat APMC yards suspend trading to tackle Covid second wave
Agricultural Produce Advertising Committee (APMC) yards in Gujarat have suspended buying and selling pursuits next a sharp increase in Covid-19 positives, leaving farmers in the Condition sitting down on a pile of harvested winter season crops and a nervous whole lot.
The Agricultural Produce Sector Committee (APMC) at Rajkot, one particular of the most significant industry yards in Saurashtra region, on Tuesday introduced suspension of buying and selling pursuits until further discover. The garden is a significant place of trade for jeera (cumin seed), cotton, pulses, groundnut, castor, wheat, onion and potato.
Blow to farmers
This has arrive as a setback to farmers. “We had been waiting around for federal government to procure wheat. I have about 50 quintals of unsold harvested wheat laying on my fields. We are in need of funds, but the marketplaces are shut until further discover. It is really uncertain scenario, and we are clueless what to do,” Tarshibhai Vekariya from Khamta village of Rajkot district told BusinessLine.
Vekariya has analyzed favourable for Covid-19 and is under property isolation as on Wednesday.
On the traces of Rajkot APMC, quite a few other APMCs from the Condition suspended buying and selling pursuits to avoid gatherings at the garden and prevent further spread of the pandemic.
In North Gujarat, an additional significant APMC garden, Unjha, introduced voluntary lockdown for seven times with bacterial infections mounting in the region. In a general public discover on Monday, Unjha APMC reported, “In look at of the present-day outbreak condition, a meeting was convened by the civic authority of Unjha town with Unjha traders’ association and industry garden agents’ association. It was collectively determined to voluntarily shut down the APMC garden from April fourteen to April 21.”
Price tag & provide dynamics may well alter
Unjha is the most significant industry for seed spices including cuminseed, corianderseed, fennel seed and fenugreek, apart from other commodities.
The suspension of buying and selling at a time when the harvest period is at the peak could outcome into a blow to farmers.
On the one particular hand, numerous commodities have revealed downtrend in costs about the previous one particular 7 days amidst fears of a feasible lockdown causing desire destruction. On the other, the suspended buying and selling would build a provide glut.
As a outcome, farmers will flood the marketplaces with their creates when they resume buying and selling. This could further squeeze the costs next a sharp soar in provides inside of a relatively shorter time.
An onion producer from Morbi, Hussain Ali Khorjiya, informed that red onion off-consider has arrive to a halt as marketplaces are not purposeful. The last traded price tag was ₹700 -800 a quintal. “But with consuming marketplaces like hotels, places to eat shut in quite a few big towns, costs have began declining. I am sitting down on a big pile of unsold onions. I harvested about two,400 quintals of onions on twenty acres. I have sold some about the previous pair of months, but nevertheless I am remaining with a big unsold amount.”
He fears the costs to accurate immediately after marketplaces open and get flooded. “We may well have to experience losses from the remaining crop,” he additional.
Among the the districts wherever APMCs are shut include Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Amreli, Mehsana, apart from Morbi and Rajkot.