KORAPUT: Vegetable farmers of Koraput are a worried lot. In the absence of market linkage, they are forced to sell their produce to middlemen at prices lower than the market price despite the fact that vegetables grown in Koraput are much in demand in markets of Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
To make things worse, there are no storage facilities and reaching the vegetable haat (market) at Koraput town is an arduous task for the growers for lack of proper road connectivity. More than 5,000 farmers of Lendri-Maliguda, Paliba, Suku, Chandal-Mundar, Mali-Dussra, Parja-Mundar, Banmalipur, Champaguda, Dumriguda and Kadamguda, all located within 15 to 20 km from Koraput town, are into vegetable farming. They depend on the vegetable haat in the town to sell their daily produce. Vegetables like bean, tomato, lady’s finger, cauliflower and cabbage are grown in this part of Southern Odisha.
Although these villages are located 15 to 20 km away from Koraput town, farmers are forced to travel an additional 70 km to reach the town via Nandapur in the only bus that commutes between Jeypore and Paliba daily. Some women farmers also take the Koraput-Visakhapatnam train to reach the district headquarters town on Sundays when weekly markets are organised. Koraput has no Krushak Bazaars like that in the other parts of the State and the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh where farmers are provided ‘pindis’ to sell vegetables.
A farmer of Paliba village, Sadhba Mali, said since there is no organised market, they sell their vegetables on the basis of jhudis (large bamboo baskets). Two bamboo baskets is equal to one Kaudi, he said, while explaining the measurements they follow for selling their produce. He sells one Kaudi of brinjal at `350 and on weighing, the quantity comes to 60 kg.
Middlemen sell it at `25 per kg and earn `1,500 for one Kaudi of brinjals. Similar is the price of other vegetables as well. Those who do not want to fall into the middlemen trap, sell their produce on footpaths and roadside. “Since there is no designated area to sell vegetables, we keep shifting from one junction to another in Koraput town, often facing the ire of traffic policemen,” said Kamla Malini, a woman farmer of Mali Dushra village.