Tomato-Onion-Potato: A Fact Check into Modi’s ‘TOP’ Priority for Farmers

Kick-starting BJP’s election campaigns in Karnataka, PM Modi reiterated his “commitment” towards farmers on Sunday. While speaking at the rally in Bangalore, Modi reformulated the word ‘top’ explaining that the word for him stood for “Tomato, Onion and Potato.”

“Farmers producing fruits and vegetables are our ‘TOP’ priority. ‘TOP’ means ‘Tomato, Onion and Potato’. We have launched ‘Operation Greens’ in the interest of these farmers. ‘Operation Greens’ would be beneficial for farmers just like the Amul model was successful in dairy,” said Modi during the rally.

Modi’s comments to boost the cultivation of ‘tomato, onion and potato’ come amidst the distress of farmers in the BJP-governed states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. During the first week of January this year, in Uttar Pradesh, farmers were seen dumping their produces, mainly potatoes, in front of the Vidhan Sabha building and outside the residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The farmers, who were not getting adequate prices for their produces, took themselves to streets to express their anger against the BJP-led government and their policies. Earlier, the government had fixed Rs 457 as the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for a quintal of potato against the demands of farmers for Rs 1,000 as MSP.

"We are getting Rs. 3-4 per kilo from the 'mandis' while we want Rs. 10 per kilo. What else do we do when our pleas are falling on deaf ears," a protesting farmer told IANS.

Like potato farmers in Uttar Pradesh, tomato farmers in Andhra Pradesh had dumped their produces on the roadside of Pattikonda and Alur wholesale markets of Kurnool district during the last week of December. After transporting the produce to the market and incurring a huge loss, the farmers came to know that the prices had crashed to as low as Rs 50 paise per kg. Other than Andhra Pradesh, in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh also farmers dumped tomatoes on the highways to mark their protest.

Indian markets have witnessed fluctuations in prices of tomatoes; during the November-December period prices were at an extreme. Tomato prices went up by 700 percent in Kolkata; in Mumbai and Bangalore, the retail prices were Rs 100 and Rs 120 respectively. On the other hand, farmers were facing distress to sell their produces.

In case of onions, the average price was around Rs 15 per kilo in retail markets. At that point, the farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra were forced to sell their produce for the price which was much less than the cost of production.

In Nashik, the farmers were forced to sell onions at Rs 2 per kilo against the average cost of production of Rs 6 per kilo. While, in October-November period of 2017, the retail price had gone up to Rs 70-80 per kilo in Nashik market. However, again the prices crashed by 50 percent during the last week of January 2018.

Moreover, in Bangalore, Modi hinted that ‘farmer friendly’ BS Yeddyurappa will be the chief ministerial candidate of BJP if the party wins the elections.

“If farmer’s son Yeddyurappa becomes the Chief Minister, the Centre’s MSP (minimum support price) scheme will be highly successful because he knows the problems of the farmers,” Modi added.

While highlighting the allegations of corruptions against high-ranking Congress MLAs in the state, Modi forgot the past of BS Yeddyurappa, the two-time chief minister of Karnataka who had had to spend time in jail on corruption charges.