By Krishna Jha
Communist Party of India has issued countywide call to stage a massive demonstration at Ramleela grounds on September first this year against the indifferent attitude of the ruling NDA government towards people’s growing miseries. While hunger graph shows the contradiction that India is one of the largest food producing countries, yet so far as consumption is concerned, we stand at 102 among 117 qualifying countries, worse than the neighbouring countries. According to statistics, the food scenario had been already poor even before COVID pandemic. COVID had its own share in the rising impoverishment and already had singularly affected the employment possibilities. Adding salt to the livid wounds, the malnourished generation has its own effects that may damage the future also, thus offering no hope.
One glaring example is country’s wholesale price index. With price inflation has reached close to double digit, at 9.87 percent, food prices too are rising. The wholesale price index shows that the inflation is rising across most of the areas. A month back it was higher than 9.68 while the projection was 9.15 percent. Wholesale food prices rose to 6.14 percent in June after rising to 4.49 per cent in May. Fuel and power prices increased up to 27.41 percent year-on-year in June, as against a rise of 30.33 percent a month ago.
While food items are becoming dearer, farmers are becoming poorer. For example, the main crops for Rabi season like wheat, gram (Chana) and barley, are selling at an average of 3-8 percent below their respective minimum support prices (MSPs) in mandis (agricultural market yards) during the main harvesting period of April-June. Maize prices were the worst affected so far as farmers were concerned, ruling 24 per cent below the MSP. In fact, the Rabi harvest has brought a lot of pessimism since the main crops sale has gone lower than the MSP itself.
The average mandi prices of these crops on July 8 showed that wheat, the main Rabi crop, was still faring badly in markets, according to mandi price data maintained by the Agmarknet portal. Better rates in agricultural markets are seen as a help to farmers who depend solely on agricultural crops. While farmers are not getting their dues, consumers have to deal with higher food inflation.
The situation is no better for farmers producing common food items that make the food eatable like tomato, onion and potato. While the prices of these food items are growing, surprisingly their producers are forced to sell their produce at very low prices. In the states where potato is a major crop like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the distress is strangely for them alone as their produce fetches merely Rs 2 or 3 for a kg of potato, a major food for people here. The consumers for whom it amounts to a staple food are loaded with hardships.
The retail price for a kilo of tomatoes in Delhi was Rs 53 around the middle of June this year, according to data collected by the Price Monitoring Division, which is available in the public domain. This marked an increase of Rs 23 in the price of one kilo of tomato recorded around the middle of the previous month. Thus, on May 17, 2026, one kilo of tomatoes cost Rs 30, as per the records. Similarly, the price for a kilo of onions was Rs 32 in Delhi on June 17, 2026, which was Rs 5 higher than the price for a kilo of onions a week back.
The Union Government has been maintaining that ensuring the right prices for farmers and consumers is a “top priority” for it. The fact of the matter is different, farmers are forced to sell their produce at very low prices, and the increase in retail prices is a failure of the government. Except in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Nagaland, Chandigarh, Ladakh, and Tamil Nadu, tomato prices have gone up in all States and Union Territories in the past week, with the highest increase in Delhi.
Other than tomatoes, onions and potatoes, the prices of basic food items like rice, gram dal, tur dal, urad dal, moong dal, masoor dal, mustard oil, and palm oil have also gone up in Delhi and other parts of the country.
Officially, the government has not provided any details to explain the rise in prices of tomato, onion and potato, it has already started telling media persons through “sources” that it was a seasonal issue and that the Centre would soon be taking steps to curb the price rise and ensure adequate supplies of these basic items in retail markets. The truth stands that availability has become a far off dream and the deprivation for the larger sections has come down to threatening levels.
Farmers’ organisations are unhappy with the Union government’s policies for the inflation. This price rise is the biggest paradox. Retail prices are increasing and farmers are being fleeced. Who is gaining from this hike? Depriving the producing class, it is the corporate houses in the retail trade and big traders that are gaining. These exploiting sections are getting the support of the ruling party to increase their profits, while the farmers are facing irregularity even in the provision of MSP.
When affordability goes down to bottom level, the entire household starts slipping down. The survival battle is mostly common among those living below poverty line. (IPA Service)
