VADODARA, July 7: Even as the State reels under a back-breaking edible oil price hike, prices of vegetables have begun to rattle kitchens in Vadodara - Tomatoes at Rs 20 a kg, onions at Rs 10 and potatoes at Rs 17 a kg.With monsoons setting in and the Government dozing off, the vegetable prices are hitting whimsical highs and threatening to continue the ascent even as the demand searches a new bottom. Since the hike last month, the inflow of stocks has been dropped from to 20 trucks with 160 tonnes to less than half. Jagdish Kochwani, a trader in the wholesale mandi Sardar Patel Market, provides some clues. High tranportation costs to ferry tomatoes from Nasik has caused the hike, while potatoes and onions traders concentrate on stocks in cold storages, pushing up the prices, he says.District agriculture officer S D Patel partly attributes the hike to low summer production. The hike may continue for another month till the kharif harvest in August. About 1.50 lakh hectares of the total cultivable 5.28 lakh, is covered by irrigation water, while the rest depends on the rain gods. In Vadodara district, vegetables grew only on 18,400 hectares during 1997-98, much the same the previous year.Sardar Patel Dalal Association president Sukhdev Kachhia says 60 per cent of the vegetables produced in Vadodara is consumed in Ahmedabad market also..Sardar Patel Market Inspector Ravjibhai Patel, Kachhia and the district agriculture officer are unanimous that the Government has not been able to devise a mechanism to hold the prices. While the prices of some vegetables may not be controlled as they are perishable and seasonal, the onion and potato prices can be controlled by opening more cold storages, they say. Kochwani also advocates the right balance between imports and exports between states.But, the prices of brinjal and gaurd are falling, thanks to bulk production. But they are not taken as good replacement for the basic vegetables. ``Today nobody wants to buy even a sack of brinjal for Rs 20,'' says a wholesaler. Such situation hits farmers' income and this is when the government should intervene, Patel says. ``If oil prices can be checked, then the vegetable prices too,'' says a senior official. But continual rain may cause a rise in the prices of brinjal, gaurd, ladyfinger and others as water-logging may prevent lifting of vegetables and create artifical shortage.
