Jamtikra: There was a time when farmers in Bargarh district made a good livelihood from mustard cultivation. But, the cultivation has been a thing of the past as most of the farmers have turned away from it.
Lack of support and training is said to be the main reason for the farmers’ reticence to cultivate mustard. There was a time when yellow mustard flowers planted on acres of land would welcome people during winter seasons. Beautiful mustard fields were huge attraction for tourists.
However, farmers now rue that they are neglected without any help from the administration. Due to lack of market facilities, farmers often end up selling to middlemen. They are unable to recover their input cost which is the main reason why they turn away from mustard cultivation.
Moreover, farmers are not provided with seeds, fertilisers and other inputs for cultivation. On the other hand, no officials reach them when they incur losses forcing them to prefer working as migrant workers.
The farmers pointed out that there is no government procurement mechanism to ensure right price for mustard farmers. Moreover, there is a decrease in mustard cultivation as the administration is not actively promoting it.
Bugbuga village under this block was once known as the ‘mustard’ village as almost all the residents here cultivated mustard. However, with lack of assistance, the number is declining every passing year. Now only a handful of farmers are growing mustard as they do not want to stop their ancestral farming.
“Many farmers used to cultivate mustard. However, no one helped us when we faced loss. There is no supply of seed and fertilisers. We could not even get seeds,” Bharat Sandha, a farmer rued.
“There is no proper training provided to farmers from the administration to ensure high production of mustard and protect the crop from pest attacks,” another farmer said.
“Local mustard has a good demand in markets, but we are unable to get right price due to lack of procurement programmes and influx of other states’ produce which is sold at much lower price,” a woman farmer said.
The farmers observed that the administration should supply high-yielding seeds, provide training to farmers and ensure proper market conditions and facilities.
“I will take the plight of farmers to the district administration and take steps to impart proper training and boost mustard cultivation in the block,” rural agriculture officer Kishore Das.