Jajpur: Absence of a second cold storage in Jajpur district has severely hit vegetable cultivation over 18,000 hectares of farmland in the district, a report said.
An under-construction cold storage of 5,000 tonne capacity at Panikoili is yet to be completed even after five years.
The lone Banshidhar cold storage at Chhatia bordering Cuttack district has fallen short of its capacity to store the vegetables grown by farmers in the district. Moreover, the farmers are also not interested to travel that long to store their vegetables and instead take the route of distress sale. They sell their produce at throwaway prices to middlemen to save their produce from rotting.
The farmers claimed that the district agriculture and horticulture departments lack foresight. All the plans and schemes of the state government for development of agriculture have remained on papers as vegetable famers languish in neglect due to absence of cold storage.
Farmers Dhoidhar Naiak, Sridhar Barik and Bibhu Prasad Panda alleged that while the state government is showing enough concern for industrialisation the same is not visible when it comes to development of agriculture.
Farmers Rabindra Behera and Akshaya Behera said it could have been easier for them to store their harvested vegetable and not go for distress sale had there been a second cold storage in the district. As a result, they have to sell a cauliflower for as low as Rs 6-7 at the start of winter season and end up getting ruined financially, they said.
Vegetable farming is a major livelihood source for most of the residents in Dasarathpur, Dharmasala, Rasulpur, Barchana, Sukinda and Binjaharpur blocks as three major rivers – Kharasrota, Baitarani and Brahmani – flow through these blocks. The Barabati vegetable market is known to be a major hub of vegetables.
However, with more and more farmers taking up vegetable cultivation the diversion of river water has hit the farmers hard.
There is no more adequate water to irrigate their farmlands while the government although aware of the situation has not been able to make provision of irrigation. Moreover, the government is not showing enough interest to establish a second cold storage in the district.
While the Panikoili cold storage is yet to get completed, the government has not been able construct packing houses for vegetable conservation, construction of small and mini cold storages, refrigeration room, integrated packing rooms and mobile cold storages.
Lokanath Jena, deputy director of horticulture, said the second cold storage is under-construction. The farmers are not evincing interest to establish mini cold storages with government assistance for which the matter has remained unresolved, he added.
PNN