February 8, 2025

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Gujarat APMC yards suspend trading to tackle Covid second wave

Agricultural Generate Internet marketing Committee (APMC) yards in Gujarat have suspended buying and selling routines 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 anxious lot.

The Agricultural Generate Industry Committee (APMC) at Rajkot, a person of the largest industry yards in Saurashtra area, on Tuesday declared suspension of buying and selling routines till further discover. The lawn is a big position of trade for jeera (cumin seed), cotton, pulses, groundnut, castor, wheat, onion and potato.

Blow to farmers

This has appear as a setback to farmers. “We were being waiting for governing administration to procure wheat. I have about fifty quintals of unsold harvested wheat laying on my fields. We are in have to have of funds, but the marketplaces are shut till further discover. It is quite unsure circumstance, and we are clueless what to do,” Tarshibhai Vekariya from Khamta village of Rajkot district instructed BusinessLine.

Vekariya has tested optimistic for Covid-19 and is underneath dwelling isolation as on Wednesday.

On the lines of Rajkot APMC, numerous other APMCs from the Condition suspended buying and selling routines to stay clear of gatherings at the lawn and reduce further spread of the pandemic.

In North Gujarat, a further big APMC lawn, Unjha, declared voluntary lockdown for seven days with infections increasing in the area. In a community discover on Monday, Unjha APMC stated, “In view of the existing outbreak situation, a meeting was convened by the civic authority of Unjha city with Unjha traders’ affiliation and industry lawn agents’ affiliation. It was collectively resolved to voluntarily shut down the APMC lawn from April 14 to April 21.”

Price & provide dynamics may alter

Unjha is the largest 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 time is at the peak could end result into a blow to farmers.

On the a person hand, numerous commodities have proven downtrend in rates above the previous a person 7 days amidst fears of a feasible lockdown resulting in demand from customers destruction. On the other, the suspended buying and selling would generate a provide glut.

As a end result, farmers will flood the marketplaces with their makes when they resume buying and selling. This could further squeeze the rates next a sharp bounce in provides in a somewhat small time.

An onion producer from Morbi, Hussain Ali Khorjiya, knowledgeable that pink onion off-take has appear to a halt as marketplaces are not useful. The previous traded price was ₹700 -800 a quintal. “But with consuming marketplaces like lodges, restaurants shut in numerous major towns, rates have begun declining. I am sitting down on a enormous pile of unsold onions. I harvested about 2,four hundred quintals of onions on 20 acres. I have offered some above the previous few of months, but nonetheless I am remaining with a enormous unsold amount.”

He fears the rates to proper soon after marketplaces open up and get flooded. “We may have to encounter losses from the remaining crop,” he extra.

Between the districts wherever APMCs are shut consist of Jamnagar, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Amreli, Mehsana, apart from Morbi and Rajkot.