Baisinga: Farmers in Baisinga locality under Betanoti tehsil of Mayurbhanj district are staring at a bleak future as huge quantities of vegetables are rotting on a daily basis, due to lack of a cold storage in the area, sources said. The ongoing heatwave has compounded the problems of the farmers. As a result, farmers have been forced to resort to distressed sales of vegetables to recover some portion of their losses.
Sources said that vegetable cultivation is carried out on a large scale on farmlands situated close to Budhabalanga river bank and on Gangahara river basin. This year farmers have cultivated ridge gourd, brinjal, cucumber, pointed gourd, green chillies and beans.
Farmers of Patalipura, Salagaon, Nakhara, Denfouda, Deopada Dariha, Pratimadeipur, Manatri, Chandanpur and Mangobindpur villages alleged that they have no option, but to sell their produce at dirt-cheap rates because of the lack of a cold storage. The ongoing heatwave is destroying the vegetables, they pointed out. They added that if there were cold storage facilities, they could have preserved the vegetables for a long time and even sell those in markets at Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Reports said that farmers have been severely hit due to drastic decline in vegetable prices in the markets at Baisinga, Manatri and Betanoti. As a result, they are failing to recover their investments. Currently, their only aim is to recover as much money as they can.
The Dahibadi weekly market is held twice a week and farmers have to pay a fee to sell their produces there. The Regulated Market Committee (RMC) at Betanoti and Baisinga panchayat officials collect taxes from over 5,000 farmers. Despite paying fees and taxes, farmers lamented the lack of a proper storage facility.
Farmers have demanded the construction of a cold storage on land belonging to RMC which is about 500 metres away from the Dahibadi vegetable market adjoining National Highway-18 Badasahi MLA Sanatan Bijuli had earlier drawn the attention of the Odisha government on this issue.
In the last session of the Odisha Assembly, Bijuli had brought up the topic of building a cold storage. State Agriculture Minister, Ranendra Pratap Swain had informed Bijuli then that the government did not have any plans for establishment of a cold storage in any of the localities mentioned above. However, he had said that the government will specially allocate funds if a cold storage is established on private initiative.
When contacted, Betanoti’s RMC secretary Sadanand Marndi informed that he is aware about the problems of vegetable farmers and very soon he will submit a proposal to the state government in this regard.
PNN