Rabindranath Biswas
Diglipur, April 30: For the residents of far-flung villages such as Gandhinagar, Shantinagar & Ganeshnagar under Diglipur Tehsil, the nearest Agriculture Fertilizer Depot is a distant reality. To reach it, farmers are forced to navigate unstable, narrow dinghies through choppy river channels and sea.
According to information, many farmers from these far-flung villages travel kilometers through channels and sea in their dinghies to obtain the fertilizer from the agriculture fertilizer depot at Keralapuram. These small dinghies, often overloaded with heavy sacks of fertilizer, are prone to capsizing in the sudden winds common to this region, they rued. Furthermore, a single trip can consume an entire day, pulling farmers away from their fields during the critical sowing window, the indigent farmers lamented.
“We are not just carrying fertilizer; we are carrying our livelihoods in dinghies which is really perilous, especially during inclement weather conditions,” said a local farmer.
Talking to the Andaman Sheekha Daily, the President of Diglipur Farmer Union, Mr. Kamal Halder said that he has raised the matter, reportedly describing the current system as “archaic and indifferent” to the geographical realities of the terrain. On the other hand, the Agriculture Fertilizer Depot at Subhashgram is overburdened by the farmers of Khudirampur village and Ramkrishnagram village as there is no Agriculture Fertilizer Depot in these two villages, the President claimed.
Mr. Halder said that he would take up the matter with the appropriate authority of the Agriculture Department and would outline two primary demands: 1. Establish new fertilizer points in the most inaccessible villages like Gandhinagar, Shantinagar & Ganeshnagar to eliminate the need for dangerous water travel and 2. Two additional villages Khudirampur village and Ramkrishnagram village, which currently share a single, overburdened depot at Subhashgram, must be granted their own dedicated facilities to reduce wait times and logistical bottlenecks.
Andaman Sheekha Daily when contacted the officials of the Agriculture Department, Diglipur to know more on the matter, the officials said that there is reportedly a proposal of setting up of an Agriculture Godown in Ramkrishnagram village which would reportedly serve the purposes. And so far the setting up of Agriculture Fertilizer Depot in far-flung villages such as Gandhinagar, Shantinagar & Ganeshnagar is concerned, farmers never approached the Agriculture Department with such demand; however, if there is any such demand coming from the farmers in future, the Department will reportedly consider on the matter and take the required steps in order to alleviate the hardships of the farmers, they said.
