From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : Presently there is environment of festivity all around . With the new year celebration just over people are now seen enjoying picnics. It will be soon followed by preparation for ‘Bhogali Bihu’. Tradition of festivity is connected with harvesting of agriculture products. This is best time for green leafy vegetables as vegetables like cauliflower cabbage , frenchbean , capsicum , gourd, carrot , tomato, peas , spinach etc are available in the market and prices are also at its minimum. These vegetables are the sources of several mouth watering dishes in our kitchens , hotels , restaurants or in feasts. Now the question arises how these nutrients enriched vegetables come to our kitchens. Definitely from the market and when we are to talk about a vegetable market, the Alikash market commonly known as Balugaon wholesale bazar near Kharupetia in Darrang district always comes at the top. This is one of the most reliable wholesale vegetables market which fulfill the market demand of around 300 /350 tonnes of vegetables on an average. Vegetables are transported to different parts of the state besides Tripura, Mizoram, North Bengal and Delhi. “Everyday twenty to twenty five numbers of long distant truck each loaded with ten to twelve tonnes of fresh vegetables being carried to Guwahati upper Assam, Silchar ,Tripura, Mizoram etc. Vegetables like french bean, capsicum, chilly etc which don’t perish easily are also transported to North Bengal and Delhi when vegetables production decrease in those areas. There are a dozen of smaller short distant vehicles which use to transport to nearby retail markets ” , said Krishna Saha, a Kharupetia based local journalist.
Referring to a simple mathematics journalist Saha said , ” If we consider an average price of Rs 100 per quintal it could be easily apprehensive that the market has a regular transaction of Rs 30 to 35 lakhs per market day.” Residing in Guwahati, Silchar, Jorhat etc one couldn’t believe that in the market recently farmers sold their vegetable products like cauliflower, cabbage, root cabbage (Olkabi) ,brinjal etc at prices as low as Rs 4/7 per kilo . Sometimes the market price going down to less than one rupee per kilo, the farmers failing to bear the carrying and labour costs had no other alternatives but to throw it on the streets or feed their cattles.
Taking to this correspondent a young progressive vegetables grower of Bihudiya village Habibur Rahman has termed the Balugaon bazar as the lifeline of the local farmers. ” The bazar has offered a assured market platform for the the several hundreds vegetable growers of the locality. There the farmers get the opportunity to directly talk to the traders coming from the entire NE where as in markets outside the district including Guwahati farmers can’t access without middlemen.” ” Moreover in Balugaon if vegetables are not sold on that day , farmers can keep it there in the safe custody of the market management committee for the next day . However absence of cold storage has been deeply felt by the farmers .” Farmer Rahman added.
Regarding the present situation of the COVID hit farmers of the area the farmer Rahman said , ” Just few days before lockdown I started harvesting capsicum which have been grown in ten bighas of land. But I could sell only twenty percent of it .Similar were the case for many farmers. We suffered heavy losses.” “In the next couple of months we couldn’t do anything due to non availability of quality seeds in the market. Later fifty percent of farmers like me who have some capital to reinvest again engaged in farming . Due to less production against the demand the recent products could earn satisfactory profit for the farmers thereby compensating something of their lockdown losses. However many poor and marginal farmers who had suffered losses and didn’t take risk of reinvestment fearing repeat of losses remained heavy loosers.” Rahman concluded.
