Shankarappa grew garlic in Magod village in Karnataka’s Haveri district because last year it made him rich. In 2024, garlic was fetching ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per quintal at the mandi. With seven to nine quintals per acre, farmers like him were earning up to two lakh rupees in profit. It felt like the crop of a lifetime.
So he did what any farmer would do. He planted more.
This year, he spent ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 per acre on seeds, fertilisers, and labour. When the harvest came and he took his garlic to market, buyers offered him ₹2,000 to ₹3,000 per quintal. In some mandis, garlic was fetching only ₹3,000 to ₹5,000 per quintal — a fraction of last year’s price.
“We have children studying, households to run, and loans to repay,” Shankarappa said. “With these prices, we don’t know how to manage.”
The Trap of Last Year’s Good Harvest
What happened to garlic farmers in 2025 follows a pattern so predictable it has its own name in agricultural economics — the commodity price cycle. High prices encourage more farmers to grow a crop. More farmers growing the same crop floods the market. Flooded markets crash prices. Farmers who borrowed to expand their acreage end up worse off than before they started.
In India, garlic prices dropped sharply in 2025 as a result of oversupply. The previous year’s high prices had encouraged more farmers to plant garlic, creating a glut in the market. As the new crop entered wholesale and retail markets, supply far exceeded demand, pushing prices further down.
In Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district, the story was the same. Farmers had invested heavily in garlic cultivation expecting high profits. But when crops sown in mid-December came to harvest, market demand had slumped. Rangaswamy, a farmer from the region, said he sourced quality seeds from the Salem market at ₹50,000 per quintal. When he planted, the market rate was ₹25,000 per quintal. By harvest, it had fallen to ₹4,000 to ₹5,000.
In Haveri, unseasonal rains made everything worse. Garlic needs dry sunshine after sowing. It got neither. Crops rotted in the field. Farmers who lost their harvest to rain could not even recoup their investment by selling — there was nothing left to sell.
Consumers Paid More. Farmers Earned Less.
Here is the cruel twist at the heart of India’s garlic story in 2025: consumers in cities paid more, while farmers earned less. By late 2025, India experienced a significant increase in garlic prices at the retail end, reaching up to ₹400 per kilogram, attributed to a nationwide shortage. The scarcity was a result of decreased production as farmers in key states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab had opted for alternative crops following years of unfavorable garlic market prices.
The cycle had completed itself. Farmers grew too much, prices crashed, farmers switched to other crops, supply fell, retail prices soared — and farmers who had already abandoned garlic missed the recovery entirely.
A Structural Problem, Not a Bad Season
Up to 25% of India’s garlic is lost post-harvest due to poor storage and logistics infrastructure. High price volatility continues to deter stable returns for farmers. Without cold storage, farmers cannot hold their crop and wait for better prices. Without a minimum support price, they have no floor to fall back on. Without reliable market information, they cannot plan one season ahead.
The cost of fertilisers, water, and farming equipment has skyrocketed. Farmers are struggling to maintain profitability, leading some to scale back garlic production altogether.
Local farmer groups in Haveri and Chamarajanagar have urged the government to intervene — to stabilise prices, compensate for weather losses, and guarantee a minimum return. None of it has come.
Shankarappa looked at his empty fields and said what garlic farmers across India are thinking. “Last year garlic saved us. This year it has pushed us into debt.” Next year, he will plant something else. And the cycle will begin again.
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