Phulbani: Continuous apathy of the state government to create a chain of cold-storages has dashed the hopes and aspirations of vegetable farmers in Kandhamal district.
Hilly areas of the district are the most suitable areas for cultivation of fruits and vegetables but the farmers here have failed to reap benefits in the absence of cold storage facilities and market linkages.
Vegetables and fruits of the district have a greater demand within and outside of the state for its good quality.
Farmers of the district have been producing vegetables like beans, pea, potato, tomato, bitter gourd, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, gourd, onion and ridge gourd. Among them Kandhamal ‘Raikia’ bean and cauliflower have high demand.
In the absence of cold storages and proper market linkages, the farmers in the district are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices to middlemen who trade them at higher rates in the open market.
Loamy sand of Kandhamal district is purely suitable for vegetable cultivation. Mainly farmers from Tikabali, K. Nuagaon, Raikia, G. Udayagiri, Firingia and Phulbani do vegetable cultivation.
A joint report of horticultural and agricultural departments said the farmers cultivate vegetables and fruits in more than 30, 000 hectares and 15,000 hectares respectively.
“Farmers produce vegetables worth Rs 50,000 per hectare annually,” added the report.
As the climate is suitable for vegetable farming, the farmers are producing huge quantities of vegetables in kharif season also.
Farmers produce tonnes of vegetables, but they face difficulties for their preservation with no cold storage available to them. In many cases, harvested vegetables remain unsold for days while most of them get rotten for which the farmers are forced to sell their produce to the middlemen at lower price.
On the other hand, the cold storage, which was opened at G Udayagiri in 1981, is lying defunct for 29 years as it was unable to pay the electricity bill.
Though the state government and NABARD had announced subsidy for opening new cold storages, private players are not showing interest to set up such facilities.
The Integrated Tribal Development Agency has formed various mini cold storages in various blocks but with no managing committees they remain non-operational.
To promote agricultural activities in tribal region of the state, the government has implemented a programme named Agriculture Production Cluster in Tribal Region of Odisha. In this programme 40 blocks of 12 tribal dominated districts have been selected. Phulbani, Baliguda and K. Nuagaon are the selected blocks in Kandhamal district.
Under the programme, producers groups will be formed by taking a group of 200 women. And each group will be provided with a cold-storage for the preservation of vegetables and fruits produced by them. But till now no such group has been formed in the district.
Ajit Behera a farmer of Gumagad, said the government has been producing vegetables and fruits in the district. But there are no cold-storage and market linkage facilities for them. “In such a situation we are forced to sell our produce to middlemen at lower prices,” he added.