FLOOD EFFECT: Vegetables will continue to burn hole in pockets

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Floods will go but leave behind at least two imprints – vegetable scarcity and spiralling prices – in the state, at least for a few months in the post-flood period. Already vegetables are scarce in the market, including that of Guwahati.

According to sources in the Agriculture Department, this wave of floods has already affected 30,357 hectares vegetable cultivation. Nagaon, Nalbari, Darrang, Barpeta, Goalpara and a part of Kamrup are the most-vegetable producing districts in the state, meeting around 60 per cent of the vegetable requirement of the state. And all these districts are facing the wrath of the current wave of floods.

Under normal situations, around 80 trucks of vegetables leave for the rest of the state daily from Kharupetia alone. However, this supply has come to a grinding halt now. According to sources, the sabji mandi (vegetable wholesale market) at Kharupetia is famous for the cheapest rates of vegetables. Now jika is sold at Rs 60 per kg, lady's finger at Rs 50 per kg, lesera (long bean) at Rs 70 per kg, brinjal at Rs 50 per kg, bottle gourd (pani lao) at Rs 40 per piece at Kharupetia. The prices of all such vegetables are naturally twice or thrice elsewhere in the state.

According to official sources, to level the demand-supply gap, vegetables come to the state from Meghalaya, West Bengal and even Delhi. The imported vegetables will certainly burn holes in the pocket.

Under a normal situation, the government does not control vegetable prices as these are perishable items that depend on demand and supply. A section of vegetable growers from Kharupetia and Nagaon said, "The floods have damaged over 80 per cent of our vegetables. It will take two to three months to grow vegetables afresh when the flood water recedes. Thus, the scarcity of vegetables in the post-flood period in the state is inevitable. The state consumers will have to depend largely on the neighbouring states."

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