Vegetable prices and Mumbai Stock Exchange
To get your fundamentals right, I hope the reader of this blog understands the following detail about supply and demand very well.
- All stock prices at Bombay stock excange go up when demand is higher than supply and go down when supply of available shares is higher than demand.
- If there is demand for 20 tons of tomatoes in Bangalore main wholesale market and only 10 tons are available that day then tomato price will be very high.
- If there is demand for 10 tons of tomatoes in Bangalore main wholesale market and 20 tons are available that day then tomato price will be very low.
So you need to answer the question. How is supply and demand of tomatoes affecting the effort the farmer needs to put in terms of cow dung application, minerals, seeds, labors, soil work and many other work needed to grow tomatoes? The farmer needs to make the same effort no matter what the price of tomato is at Bangalore main market. So is the farmer effectively gambling with his work. Answer is a RESOUNDING YES. This type of trading food has led to farmers cutting costs involved in maintaining soil fertility, paying labor, buying the best seed etc. etc.. and the farmer has become a poor person working in a very unattractive profession. So the quality of tomato he supplies is also very average or poor. The nutrition content in this tomato is also very bad as the soil growing this tomato is not cared for very much other than using toxic chemical fertilizers.
How can such a tomato compare with a Mapletree farm grown tomato? There is no comparison at all. Because the market price has failed to support the production cost of tomato, the farmer has stooped to low levels in terms of integrity in maintaining soil health and failed in his duty to take care of his community health. The purpose of this farmer has become how to survive or how to quit farming and move on to some other attractive profession. By buying tomatoes at market prices, customers are digging the grave for farmers. Vote with your money for soil fertility and good health by eating from healthy soils. If you buy cheap products you are directly contributing to the demise of good farming practices. Someone somewhere has to pay. By buying at cheap prices the customer paves the way for the destruction of farming profession and destruction of good soils and extractive agriculture methods which deplete the mineral content and biological health of the soil.
Farmers need price support. Without that, famers are coming to an end and they are encouraging the next generation of farmers to find another profession. Nobody in the supply chain really cares about the farmers including the customer who is buying tomato from the shopkeeper at 20 Rs a kg without thinking about the consequences.
Mapletree greenhouse grown tomatoes are expensive because they are grown to ripen in the vine and have more beneficial compounds and minerals that improve your health when you eat them. So, there is no price to put on your health and soil health and it’s incorrect to compare market price of tomato and Mapletree farm price for a tomato.
As I have blogged before, Trading food in the market means trading your health as food is equal to health. Farming has to be done the right way and trading food in a market will quickly bring the demise of good farming practices. Nobody thinks about the cost of growing the tomato. Everybody thinks only about the price. Please remember that your health is priceless and food is medicine and hence food is priceless. Do not apply free market economy to food. Good food costs money. By buying cheap food that is lacking essential minerals and proper nutrients, you are buying your ticket for several trips to the doctor in the future and several trips to the pharmacy as the body will lose its capacity to fight disease if the soil that grows your food does not have good mineral content and fertility. Maintaining the mineral content and fertility of the soil costs money. Good food is never cheap.
In India, the vast majority of the food is produced by small farmers with average farm size from 2–5 acres. They are often debt-stricken and living in conditions of poverty and mostly farming on rain-fed land. Unexpected price variations due to vegetable trading just like stock trading, uncertain weather conditions as always and the desire for a higher yield and greater profits make them resort to using chemical fertilizers, the long-term result of which is the deteriorated soil quality. Mapletree farm is a win-win-win for the farmer, customer and soil. Farmers get better living conditions. Soil is taken care in the best possible way. Customers eat authentic, pure, mineral rich organic food.
— Shankar, Lead Farmer, Mapletree farm.
