Hyderabad: The capital city’s dependence on other states for vegetables has increased manifold over the past three years. Apparently, the prices of vegetables have skyrocketed in the city. To tide over the crisis, the state is planning to boost vegetable cultivation in the state. T. Harish Rao, TS marketing minister, said, “We are taking steps to increase vegetable cultivation in the neighbouring districts of Hyderabad. We have identified the crop colonies for exclusively for vegetable production. The government will provide incentives to farmers to encourage vegetable production. We need to attain self-sufficiency in vegetable production to keep prices within the reach of common man.”
The government has already started distributing subsidised vegetable seeds to farmers and has taken steps to procure vegetables directly from farmers. The government will bear the transportation costs, he added. The neighbouring districts such as Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda used to be the major suppliers of vegetables to the capital city. Their place is currently occupied by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and AP.
Consumers are left with no choice but to bear the transportation and logistic costs of vegetables, ferried from other states. State minister T.Harish Rao had ordered a survey to find out the reasons behind the shortage of vegetables in the city markets after tomato prices skyrocketed to '100 per kg and onion prices increased to Rs 50 per kg recently.
Officials, who carried out the survey, informed the minister that the prices are increasing due to a drastic fall in cultivation area in the neighbouring districts.
The survey noted that in undivided AP, 4.50 lakh hectares were used for vegetables cultivation and the four neighbouring districts of Hyderabad had 2.50 lakh hectares under vegetable cultivation.
But in the past three years, vegetable cultivation come down to 1.66 lakh hectares in the state and in the neighbouring districts it is restricted to 60 lakh hectare. Apparently, the production also took a beating. The survey stated, “Vegetable production was 31.95 lakh tonnes during the 2014-15 period and it has come down to 25 lakh tonnes during the 2016-17 period. The fall in vegetable production in the state significantly increased the dependency on other states. This led to a shortage of vegetables and escalation in prices.”
“Three years ago, the average price of primary vegetables in the retail market was Rs 20 per kg, Today, they are sold for Rs 45 per kg. The prices are reported to be high in super markets and malls,” the survey said.
New districts take a toll on veggie prices:
The creation of new districts has decreased vegetable production as a sudden surge in the real estate sector in the new districts saw farmers selling off their land to realtors. As a result, the capital city is witnessing a shortage of vegetables and a hike in their prices. Vegetable cultivation area in these districts has come down from 2.50 lakh hectares in 2014-15 to 60 lakh hectares in 2016-17. The production decreased from 15 lakh tonnes to 9 lakh tonnes.
A farm land fetched less than Rs 15 lakh per acre three years ago. Currently, it is sold Rs 50 lakh per acre. The neighbouring Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts were major suppliers of vegetables to the city. The government carved out new districts—Vikarabad, Medchal, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Yadadri , Suryapet and Vikarabad—from these four districts.
As the new districts needed many facilities, headquarters of these districts witnessed a real estate boom. Subsequently, agriculture lands were converted for realty projects. A vast area of farm lands near the highways in these new districts currently house mega real estate projects.
