Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh) : As the price of garlic has skyrocketed to over Rs 500 per kg, farmers in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh are using CCTVs to monitoring the garlic fields.
The agrarians are afraid of garlic being stolen from their fields. Garlic is being sold for over Rs 500 per kg. Farmers have installed CCTV in their fields.
Farmers say that the prices of garlic have never increased so much in the last 60 years. Farmers who have cultivated garlic have become rich but now they are afraid of their crop being stolen.
Due to this, many farmers of Mohkhed block have installed CCTV in their fields so that the theft of garlic crop can be stopped. Rahul Deshmukh, a young farmer of Sanwari, said that garlic cultivation is proving to be a profitable deal for the farmers in 2024, but due to the same, theft is also increasing, due to which we have installed CCTVs in our fields so that their fields can be monitored.
"The theft in the fields has also been stopped and the laborers working in the fields can also be monitored discreetly. The CCTV cameras run on solar energy and also have the facility of alarm," added Deshmukh.
Gajanand Deshmukh, who has installed cameras in his fields, said that cameras are removed after the garlic crop was harvested. "If any suspicious activity is detected, an alarm will be given. We can monitor the fields even from outside. We can also see the recorded footage," he added.
Garlic crop is planted in about 1,500 hectares of land in the Chhindwara district. The total area of horticulture crops in the district is around 1 lakh 30 hectares.
As garlic did not fetch a good price in 2023, farmers did not show any interest in planting the crop. Farmers said the average production is said to be 28 to 32 quintals. In Mohkhed and Parasia area, some farmers have planted garlic crop in one and others up to four acres of land.
