DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Dec 02: Even as the region supplies major chunk of agricultural produce to the entire archipelago, the situation is not all rosy for farmers of Diglipur in North Andaman. About 80 percent of population in the 15 Panchayats of Diglipur are agriculturists and vend their produce in a small decrepit wooden market in Subashgram. Lack of proper infrastructure and a big market place is taking a serious toll on the farmers who are reportedly suffering huge losses after falling prey to middlemen and other cartels.
“The present wooden market was constructed way back in the year 1974. Farming activities have increased significantly since then and presently the vegetables produced in Diglipur are consumed in almost every household in A & N Islands. But due to the shrinking market space, farmers are suffering in this region. Many are forced to sit on the main road to sell their produce. The poor farmers are also cheated by middlemen as they offer very meagre prices for purchasing the vegetables. Farmers are either forced to sell their products at cheaper rates to the agents or face losses on the perishable items. Hope the administration soon comes to our rescue,” bewailed some villagers.
According to sources, the Subhashgram Panchayat moved a proposal to construct a new Vegetable Market in the year 2012. However, even after a lapse of over two years, the project still remains in paper. Suffering from fund crunch, the Panchayat approached for administration for assistance on numerous occasions, but failed to garner support. In the absence of a proper market place, farmers are suffering losses as a major portion of their produce gets perished. On the other hand, middlemen park their hired trucks and pick-ups and haggle for prices with the farmers. Wary of losses due to inefficient supply chain for perishable farm produce, farmers are forced to sell their products at more than half the actual prices in the retail market.
Sources further claim that the engineering wing of the Panchayat prepared estimates of about Rs 70 lakh for the proposed double-storied vegetable market to which the them Secretary, Agriculture agreed to execute the construction. However, the Agriculture Department, recently, denied financial assistance for the project citing reasons of no provisions in the Annual Plan of the Department. Moreover, the funds provided by the Directorate of RD, PRI &ULB is reportedly not sufficient for the construction of the market.
Pleas to the Lt. Governor, Member of Parliament, Chief Secretary also bore no positive results. The request made to the Member of Parliament for financial assistance under the MPLAD scheme also received a ‘cold shoulder’ response. Farmers in the region are under extreme unrest and demand government intervention to stop exploitation of farmers by middlemen. The administration should immediately explore measures to initiate the construction of the sprawling vegetable market that also has provisions for godown facilities, space for retail vendors etc in the larger interest of the farmers of Diglipur.
