Balasore: Since the 21-day nationwide lockdown was enforced as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus, vegetable farmers in Jaleswar block of Balasore district are in deep trouble.
For farmers, who are in the midst of harvesting, marketing of their produce is becoming a challenge.
Because of the lockdown, in most of the fields, harvesting was disrupted. Farmers are also finding it impossible to take the harvested produce to the nearby markets because of the lockdown.
“There are no takers for vegetables grown in our farmland, as lockdown restrictions have affected transportation. It is likely that the unsold vegetables will rot in the farmland,” lamented farmers of Baiganbadia.
Before the lockdown, vegetables were being supplied from here to various parts of the state like Bhubaneswar, Puri, Cuttack, Balasore and even some parts of neighbouring West Bengal.
Farmers alleged that though their vegetables have good demand in the local markets, they are unable to venture out fearing police action amid lockdown.
“The situation is chaotic right now. The supply chain is broken and it will take much longer time to bring it back to normal. By that time, our produce would be rotten,” they added.
Vegetables in hundreds of hectares of land were not harvested. At some places, middlemen are trying to buy vegetables at throwaway prices, it was alleged.
PNN