With COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, the market prices of the vegetable have gone down affecting the farmers' community adversely. Due to this, a vegetable farmer named RC Sampath Kumar from Palakkad destroyed all the brinjal crops grown on three acres of his farmland using a tractor.

Sampath Kumar, who used to earn Rs 25 per Kg of brinjal, says that after lockdown he gets only Rs 6 per kg. "This is much lower than the Rs 25 per kg customers are being charged in his area and Rs 35 per kg in Palakkad town. Considering the labour charges, vehicle rent and commission to be paid to agents, the loss is heavy," says Sampath.

Sampath spends about Rs 1 lakh per acre of his farm and harvests over 3 tonnes of brinjal every week. Earlier when the unsold brinjals started perishing, Sampath used 5 tonnes of brinjal as fertilizer for coconut trees. Further facing a huge loss, Sampath decided to destroy all the crops and now plans to start coconut farming.

The Horticorp officials of the area visited Sampath's farm and had announced that they would buy from farmers any crop that remained unsold.