Back
Tamil Nadu
From the field to the kitchen
| Costs add up as produce moves from farmer to the consumer |
Chennai’s Koyambedu market.
To reach your shopping bag, a kilo of brinjal travels a long way. The farther it travels, the more you pay, especially when inflation is high. What you pay, however, is not what the farmer gets.
Explaining how the produce moves from the farm to the market, V. R. Soundararajan, member of Market Management Committee at Koyambedu, says, “If the local market can only consume 20 tonnes and 100 tonnes are produced, the remainder has to be sent outside.”
“Suppose, in the Tiruchi market, if the rate is Rs. 5 per kilo, a farmer will get Rs. 4.70. The difference goes to the intermediary,” he says.
The intermediary is there not just for arranging transport. “You have to analyse which market will yield the highest price. Also, the risk is transferred because if anything remains unsold, the intermediary takes the risk,” says Mr. Soundararajan, who has been in the business for more than 40 years.
The intermediary also gives small loans. “It is a system of goodwill where farmer gets small advances to buy seeds etc.,” he says.
“When the brinjal reaches Chennai, its price increases because of transport, loading and unloading costs. With rise in prices, everything costs more,” he says.
“Retailers buy from Koyambedu. Depending on the time, the price varies. Before dawn, the price is higher, because the best is available. The price then keeps decreasing. Any unsold produce goes waste as there are no proper storage facilities,” he says.
N. Pandian, a shop-owner who buys from Koyambedu, prices his wares at a profit of Rs. 2 per kilo. Suppose a certain quality of brinjal is sold at Rs. 6 per kilo at Koyambedu, depending on various factors such as where in the city you buy, the quantity and your bargaining power, it can cost you up to Rs. 16.
K. Mohanarangam from Kolathur says, “Near my house, the same brinjal is expensive. But I can buy a quarter of a kilo, whereas in Koyambedu I have to buy at least half.”
“When there are several layers between the producer and the consumer, though the margin at each layer is quite small, the entire thing adds up to a tidy sum,” says Venkatesh Athreya, Advisor, Food Security, MSSRF.
Except for paddy and wheat there is no state machinery for procurement of most other products. In case of perishable goods, farmers sometimes get rock-bottom prices because what they cannot sell goes waste.
This is because there are no proper storage facilities, he says.
“In some cases, you need intermediaries to reach the right market,” says K.C. Jaishankar, who owns a farm on the outskirts of Chennai. “But, in cases where you can sell produce locally, the farmer gets a better deal.”
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu