Lockdown proving a dead bolt for small time farmers
Our produce gets spoiled amid closure, says farmers
Pulwama/ Shopian: Vegetables farmers are badly hit by the lockdown and restrictions imposed by the government to avoid the spread of covid-19.
Marginal and small time farmers who make their living by cultivating vegetables in different areas of Kashmir say that they are worried as the vegetable produce gets spoiled as nobody is willing to purchase it from them due to the lockdown.
Though vegetables are in demand these days but the farmers say that they are finding it hard to get buyers for their produce.
“Our livelihood is based on vegetable farming but due to lockdown we are unable to sell it and this disturbs our earning schedule,” says Mudasir Ahmad, a farmer from Pulwama.
“I have just two kanals of land on which I sow various vegetable species in February including Collard and other of species of Brassica Oleracea. All these varieties are ready for harvest but due to the lockdown we rae not finding any buyers,” he rued.
“Our whole produce is getting spoiled and we don’t have any other source of income,” he said, adding that government must compensate us so that we don’t end of facing starvation.
Agriculture experts say that the vegetable sales have plummeted in a big way and there are many areas where farmers are simply dumping their vegetable produce as they are unable to transport their produce to markets.
“As markets are already closed due to the lockdown, the vegetable farmers are able to sell hardly five percent of their produce to the people who are visiting their vegetable farms locally,” an official of the agriculture department said, wishing not to be named.
“One needs to understand that vegetables need to be harvested at an ideal time. If the crop is left standing for just few days, it gets destroyed,” he added.
Farmers have demanded that authorities should make arrangements for us so that we can sell our produce to possible buyers.
“If that is not possible we should be provided some relief so that we too can survive during these tough times,” Mohammad Shafi Rather, another farmer from Bugam said.
