The government may be pressing the panic buttons due to spiralling food prices, but it failed to read the writing on the wall five months ago when thousands of farmers across Haryana, Punjab and UP set ablaze hundreds of tonnes of potatoes on the streets to protest low prices and mounting losses due to a glut.
Now, prices have shot up by nearly 50%. In December, angry farmers torched potato sacks on the streets of Jalandhar and Chandigarh and tonnes of vegetables lay charred or crushed under wheels of speeding vehicles on the highways. Farmers had claimed they were unable to even recover input costs for the last three years.
