Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Agriculture Department’s lack of a suitable marketing mechanism and other facilities is causing significant losses for vegetable growers, enabling middlemen to profit, and driving up vegetable prices for consumers. This scenario is not limited to one season but has been continuing for years on end.
The government has fixed a minimum support price (MSP) for items like paddy and mustard. Vegetables are perishable items, and an MSP is not possible. However, could an alternative system be implemented to protect farmers from losses on their vegetable produce? From the farm to the market, vegetables go through two types of middlemen—those that buy produce directly from the farmers and the wholesalers in towns and cities. As a result, for example, at present the farmers are selling potatoes at Rs 6 to 7 per kg, which are sold in urban markets at Rs 25 to 30. Similarly, cauliflowers are sold by farmers at Rs 10 to 12, and the prices of the item in urban centers shoot up to Rs 30 to 40. Green peas are being sold at the source at Rs 40 to 45 but are being sold in markets at Rs 80 to 100. Tomatoes are fetching farmers Rs 25 to 30, but they are sold to consumers at Rs 70 to 80.
If there had been a sufficient number of cold storages in vegetable-growing areas, the farmers would have been able to store their produce and sell it at higher prices in the off-season. The sister organization of the Agriculture Department—the Assam State Agriculture Marketing Board (ASAMB)—builds cold storages. The private sector is also allowed to construct such cold storage facilities. According to the ASAMB’s latest information on its website, it has six cold storages with 18,000 MT capacity. Of these, only one is operational, two others are under construction, and another has been completed. One of these has also been requisitioned by the authorities. A 5,000 MT capacity cold storage at Kharupetia was inaugurated by the then Union Agriculture Minister in 2021, but this is still lying defunct. This unit was constructed with funds from NABARD worth Rs 25 crore. Whose irresponsibility has resulted in this unit remaining non-operational?
Cold storages operated by the private sector are either located far from vegetable-growing areas, which increases transportation costs, or their charges are too high for the average farmer. The ASAMB should have constructed mini cold storages in vegetable-growing areas or developed a mechanism to purchase vegetables directly from the farmers to eliminate the menace of middlemen. But neither has been done over the years, and the farmers are bearing the brunt. Due to the lack of facilities in vegetable-growing areas for farmers, many are forced to dump seasonal vegetables, causing immense loss.
Significantly, the leader of the opposition, Debabrata Saikia, wrote to Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma today, highlighting two factors—the lack of adequate cold storage facilities and the menace of middlemen—which have compounded the sufferings of the farmers. In his letter, Saikia pointed out that the BJP’s Vision document in 2016 had mentioned that cold storages would be set up in every subdivision, but this is yet to become a reality. He, therefore, sought the immediate intervention of the CM to ameliorate the problems of farmers.
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