Farmers seek cold storage facility

VELLORE: A section of farmers who participated in ‘National Horticulture Mission’ on Tuesday, have sought cold storage facility for preservation of vegetables and other horticulture produce. This, they claim, would fetch them better prices. The  meet was organized by the district horticulture department. K Kishore Kumar, a papaya farmer from K V Kuppam Block, pointed out that the cold storage facility could help the farmers to stock their produce during market fluctuations and sell them when the prices turned favourable. He said that many of the farmers in the region had migrated to papaya farming in a big way as this crop required less input, resources and manpower and ensured good returns.Earlier, the farmers in this region were cultivating paddy, banana etc. but due to dwindling ground water conditions and labour shortage, they had switched over to vegetables initially and now to fruits, he pointed out. While the state was extending support facilities in the form of mechanisation with subsidy components, marketing the produce still remained a big task. It was here the cold storage facility finds relevance, he argued.Another farmer L G Subramaniam, noted that intensive farming activities that used to dominate Vellore district until some three decades ago, was waning as farmers were facing severe labour shortage. Almost all the eligible farmhands in the villages preferred to ‘work’ for the NREG Scheme and only the aged and invalids were left out for the dwindling farming activities now, he lamented.“In order to get good workers, we need to pay them in advance and book their timings during the weekends when they take off from NREGS work”, he added. The farming pattern had changed drastically and what was being pursued were crops that demanded less labour support. Farming activity had become a part-time activity now. What was once considered a prestigious profession in the world, farming has lost its charm and respect as the children of the farmers have migrated to salaried jobs, leaving their parents to face the hostile situation in farming operations, said many other farmers. The joint director of agriculture, Tamilselvan, who inaugurated the meet, said while the government was aware of the various issues faced by the farmers, new plans were being devised to increase the food productivity in the wake of reducing cultivation area.