Depleting groundwater led to garlic price surge

Depleting groundwater in two major producer states, which turns into a farming catastrophe whenever the monsoon rains fail, is driving sudden and sharp spikes in garlic prices, traders and experts said, describing the situation as an environmental farming disaster that was long in the making.

Retail prices of garlic, a pungent bulb essential to Indian cooking, touched 2400 per kg in some markets last week, especially in the northeastern states, up from 240 a year ago. Three months ago, the herb sold for 2150, when prices first started to rise. Rates are expected to stabilise only when a fresh crop is ready for harvests in January, traders said.

A patchy monsoon hit summersown garlic and onion crops in Karnataka and Maharashtra, parts of which received up to 55% and 57% deficient rainfall during July and August, due to an El Nino global weather pattern. Marked by rising temperatures in the Pacific, El Nino triggers dry weather in India. The weather anomaly caused the June-September monsoon this year, which waters slightly less than half of the country’s net-sown area, to be nearly 5% below normal.