The agriculture marketing department on Wednesday began purchasing big-sized cauliflowers on a large scale to save farmers from loss as many of them were feeding the produce to cattle because of significantly low wholesale prices.

While the state government has fixed ₹5 per piece for cauliflowers weighing up to 600 grams, it is offering ₹9 for larger vegetables weighing above 600 grams.

“Today (on Wednesday), we began purchasing big-sized cauliflowers, weighing over 600 grams, directly from farmers at a decent price of ₹9 per piece. We are also procuring smaller varieties at ₹5 per piece,” said Shubham Aggarwal, the subdivisional officer of Kalna in East Burdwan.

Aggarwal was present at the Kalikatala wholesale market when the cauliflowers were being brought from farmers.

The Telegraph had on Wednesday reported the plight of hundreds of cauliflower farmers who were forced to feed their produce to cattle as the price could not cover the cost of transporting the vegetable to the market.

Agarwal said the government had decided to increase the volume of cauliflower purchases from farmers starting Thursday. On Wednesday, 1,060 pieces of cauliflower were purchased from farmers in Purbasthali 2 block, East Burdwan.

Although the state agriculture marketing department had started procuring cauliflowers both from the market and directly from farmers, they had not purchased the bigger sizes, despite the large production of that variety, particularly in the Kalna subdivision.

The prime demand of the farmers was that the government buy big cauliflowers and increase the volume of procurement as such varieties weren’t purchased in open wholesale markets because of low demand.

“Today, I sold my produce to the government and received a decent income. If the government continues this effort, it will help us a lot in minimising our losses,” said Badaruddin Sheikh, a vegetable farmer.

Ranajit Das, another vegetable farmer, who had fed a large portion of his produce to cattle, said: “It is good that the government has finally started buying big-sized cauliflowers, as they make up the largest portion of the produce this season. However, farmers like us need to know when and where they are purchasing the vegetable.”

Following a bumper production of cauliflowers in south Bengal districts such as East Burdwan, Nadia, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas, the wholesale market price of the crop dropped drastically.

A section of the farmers struggled to sell their produce, with the market offering only ₹2 per piece, while the production cost was ₹6-7.

Although the government decided to purchase more cauliflowers and sell them through Sufal Bangla stalls (state-run vegetable shops) and opened 85 procurement centres across the state, the agriculture marketing department can’t buy the produce from all farmers.

Bengal is the country’s largest producer of cauliflowers. According to horticulture department sources, approximately 44,000 small farmers annually produce 16 lakh tonnes of the crop across 55,000 hectares in the state.

“We know that we can’t purchase the entire produce from farmers. However, if we can continue purchasing at least a portion of their produce, it will certainly help them,” said a senior official.