Nabarangpur: Basant Rath, Reporter.
Notwithstanding
suitable geoclimatic condition in the district the state government has failed
to encourage the farmers of this district to take up vegetables in big way. The
farming community in the backward Nabarangpur district is grappling with
problem of plenty. The vegetable cultivation could have been the boon for the district,
where 80 percent of the families live below poverty line. Arranging funds on
their own for taking up vegetable cultivation is a tough task for them. Though
farmers in some parts of the district grow vegetables it is not on a large
scale of the 60,000 hectares of land for suitable for vegetables farming. Only
15000 hectares is being used for the purpose.
Even as the farmers diversing from paddy to cash crops, including
vegetables, is being promoted to raise farmers income and make agriculture
sustainable for them, back-up support like proper market linkage, the right
kind of seeds, fertilizers nor technical knowledge required to increase the
production. is not available. Majority of the vegetable growers being small and
marginal farmers, they borrow heavily from local moneylenders to by the inputs
The major vegetable growing
blocks of this district are hit by lack of farmer organizations, storage,
transport facilities and market support. The farmers are rendered vulnerable to
exploitation by traders and middlemen, and deprived of due returns.
A study revealed that farmers of the backward Nabarangpur get as low
as 60 percent of the actual marketing price of their produce as middlemen call
the shots. Nabarangpur is one of the
largest vegetable growing district in the state with 26 thousand hectares under
cultivation. It is found that around 45 percent of the vegetables produced in
Nabarangpur are consumed locally while around 15 percent reach different parts
of the State trough traders. The rest 40 percent of vegetables like onion,
chili, potato, tomato, beans, brinjal, and other vegetables including European
verities, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, radish, pumpkin and coriander are grown
and exported outside.
The tribals sell their produce in the weekly markets of Nabarangpur,
Papadahandi, Umerkote, Dabugam, Raighar, Kosagumuda, Jharigam and Chandahandi,
and others in the district. Traders and
middlemen, also from other states, govern the entire marketing activities. When
the market channel has more than one middleman, the share of the farmers comes down
to as low.
The anomaly can be rectified by integrating the
rural markets and developing infrastructure in the way of providing storage,
processing, grading and export facilities. Introduction of contract farming at
regulated marketing committee level with provision of giving technical inputs
from sowing to harvest and procuring produce at committed price could also
raise the farmer’s income. Lack of improved farm implements, improved seeds,
production and productivity has remained stagnant or even tended to go down.
There is no considerable effort to reverse the decline and get vegetable
farming moving forward
