Post News Network
Jajpur, Nov 25: Lack of proper market facilities and a regulatory mechanism has forced vegetable farmers in the Kharasrota-Brahmani delta region to go for distress sale.
People in the region eke out their living by cultivating vegetables over 15,000 hectare of land. Vegetables grown here are transported to Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Besides, vegetables are also exported through Paradip port.
However, lack of administrative patronage, absence of proper market facilities and a regulatory mechanism this year has left farmers in the lurch.
They find themselves in the trap of middlemen who force them to sell their produce at throwaway prices. The worst sufferers are cauliflower growers who have borrowed heavily for their crops but have lost a year’s earnings in the absence of cold storage facility.
Farmers of Jajpur, who take pride in vegetable cultivation, are now a distressed lot over their failure to sell their produce at good price. They doubt whether they will get back the return on their investment. Their hopes are fading away as construction of two cold storages in the district is getting inordinately delayed.
Farmers residing on the banks of Kharasrota took up vegetable cultivation after Jokadia bridge was made operational a decade ago. The new bridge raised high hopes in them as they thought to take up vegetable cultivation and transport the produce through the bridge.
Sources said over 500 farmers of Bhagirathpur, Adampur, Korkera, Nathuabar, Bolangi, Baunsanta, Tikarpada, Sarangpur, Barampur, Kandasara, Manpur, Barkolipatna, Bhagabanpur, Mukudeipur and Nagua daily travel to Green Market in Jajpur Road and sell vegetables like cauliflower, brinjal, cucumber and tomatoes.
Rajkishore Swain, a cauliflower farmer, alleged middlemen catch them as they arrive in the market and force them to sell cauliflower at Rs 9 per kg. The cauliflowers are later sold to customers for anything between Rs 30 to Rs 40 per piece.
Swain alleged apart from wages paid to labourers he has invested over Rs 15,000 and has worked for three months to raise the crops. But, after failing to get back the returns, he resorted to distress sale, he added.
Similar is the fate of farmers of Aratia, Kusunpur, Nuahaat, Jabra, Krushnapada, Mathasahi, Gopinathpur, Babalpur, Singhapur and Betanda villages who depend on Barabati market to sell their produce.
Deputy director of horticulture Manoj Kumar Dash said work on Chhatia cold storage started a month ago while the one at Panikoli is expected to get completed by March, 2016. Once the Panikoili cold storage gets completed, farmers can store their harvest, he added. PNN
