ગુજરાતી
English
After the natural disaster, traders, the government, and the oil lobby are looting farmers openly
Dilip Patel
Ahmedabad, October 5, 2025
Farmers are suffering due to inadequate government support. On the one hand, peanut production may decline from 6.6 million tons to 5 million tons due to delayed rains. Furthermore, traders are forced to sell their produce below the support price. Consequently, farmers are facing losses of ₹10,000 crore to ₹20,000 crore. The government is also not purchasing more than 20 percent of peanuts at the support price, so traders are looting farmers. After the natural disaster, the BJP government is also retaliating. Therefore, traders are looting farmers by setting arbitrary prices. Although marketing yards cannot auction produce below the support price, the loot continues in BJP-ruled marketing yards. On the other hand, the Saurashtra oil lobby has systematically looted the citizens of Gujarat by raising oil prices.
Who is responsible?
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kunwarji Bavaliya, Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel, State Agriculture Minister Bachchu Khabar, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Agriculture Department Secretary Anju Sharma, despite being responsible, are unwilling to do anything for the farmers. As if they want to complete their unfinished business, the 33 BJP-ruled agricultural marketing committees are being allowed to exploit them at low prices.
One Day’s Sales
On August 12, 2025, a total of 243.06 tons of peanuts arrived in 19 markets across Gujarat. The highest price for peanuts in the state was ₹1,206 per quintal, auctioned by traders at the Gondal Market Yard. Farmers do not set the price of their produce; traders do. In Rajkot, the maximum price for peanuts was ₹1,150 and the minimum was ₹920. Additionally, the maximum price was ₹1,125 in Deesa, ₹1,111 in Jetpur, ₹1,100 in Talod, ₹1,091 in Talaja, and ₹1,010 in Junagadh.
Loss of ₹18,000 crore
The minimum market price has dropped from ₹890 to ₹721. Farmers are selling. The support price for peanuts is ₹7,263 per 100 kg quintal. In 2025-26, it increased to ₹1,542. However, farmers are being bought at half the price. If the average price for 20 kg, or one maund, is ₹1,000, then 330 million maunds of peanuts would be sold for ₹33,000 crore, which should actually be ₹1,000. Based on the support price, the value of peanuts is ₹50,886 crore. Thus, if all farmers sell peanuts now, they will incur a loss of ₹17,886 crore. Even if 50 percent of farmers sell their peanuts now, there will still be a difference of ₹9,000 crore.
Market Price
Farmers are forced to sell at prices below the support price. As soon as the supply began arriving, peanut prices have fallen by ₹100 to ₹150 per 20 kg. Four days ago, farmers were getting ₹890 to ₹1,300 per maund at the Rajkot yard. Today, the price has fallen by ₹721 to a maximum of ₹1,250. Peanuts have become cheaper.
Loss in Production
This year, a record 2.2 million hectares of peanuts were sown in Gujarat. In the past three years, an average of 1.75 million hectares of peanuts have been sown in Gujarat. The Agriculture Department estimates that the peanut crop in 2025-26 will be approximately 6.6 million tonnes (6.66 billion kilograms). This could have been 330 million maunds.
But due to previous rains, farmers expect this to drop to 5 million tons. Thus, farmers have suffered a major setback in production.
The government has backtracked.
The government is going to purchase 19 percent of peanuts at the support price. Registrations for peanut purchases have already been completed. Last year, approximately 350,000 farmers registered for peanut purchases.
There are insufficient peanut storage facilities in Saurashtra. Due to excessive rains, peanut shells harvested from the fields have begun to rot. Labor costs for harvesting them have also increased. Rising diesel prices have also increased the cost of threshers.
The government urgently needs to relax regulations and purchase at least 2 million tons of peanuts at the support price. The government is required to purchase 70 maunds of peanuts from each farmer.
Rise in oil prices
The oil lobby has increased the price of 15 kg of peanuts by ₹10 per day. By increasing prices by ₹40 for four consecutive days, it has begun looting the public. This price increase has continued for four days without any apparent reason. The price of 15 kg of castor oil has increased from ₹2250-2300 to ₹2290-2340.
Why has peanut cultivation increased? Due to high support prices and government procurement at the support price, market prices for peanuts have also remained high in recent years. This has made peanut cultivation more profitable for farmers and is increasing the area under cultivation.
Peanut productivity, i.e., yield per acre, has also become an important factor. New modified seed varieties have increased productivity. Therefore, farmers are turning to peanuts.
The Girnar-4 peanut variety is being sown more frequently, resulting in higher production.
In the country, Gujarat cultivated peanuts on a record 2.1 million hectares in 2020.
In India, the estimated area under peanut cultivation is 7 million hectares in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In the last five years, the country
The area under peanut cultivation, including Rabi and summer cultivation, has been around five lakh hectares to six lakh hectares.
Support price doubled in 12 years
In 2013-14, the support price for peanuts was Rs 652 per maund. In 2024-25, it increased to Rs 1,356. In 2025-26, the government increased it by Rs 96 to Rs 1,452 per maund.
The support price for peanuts has doubled in 12 years.
The support price for cotton was Rs 802 in 2013-14, which increased to Rs 1,542 in 2025-26. This means that the price of cotton has not doubled during this period. Therefore, more peanuts are being sown. But the government is not purchasing more. (Google translation from Gujarati)
