Demand crunch compels Chhattisgarh farmers to distribute vegetables free

They did it as a mark of protest against demonetisation

Finding no buyers for the produce, Chhattisgarh farmers on Monday distributed vegetables free of cost in the state capital as a mark of protest.

The farmers have been taking vegetables in 2,00,000 hectares of land in the state, which contributes supply of over 25 per cent of country’s total potato demand. Other vegetables grown in the state are also distributed across the country.

Following favourable climatic condition, Chhattisgarh had a bumper production of vegetables in the kharif season. But the farmers failed to have respite. For, the price of vegetables had come down resulting in severely affecting the demand of the produce.

The farmers had destroyed loads of tomatoes in the streets earlier. On Monday, they distributed vegetables to the people free of cost at the venue where they staged dharna.

“We had set a target to distribute 100,000 kilograms of vegetables free to the people and it was achieved,” Hitesh Varu of Chhattisgarh Yuva Pragatisheel Kisan Sangh said. The cost of vegetables distributed free had been estimated at Rs 25 lakh, he added.

Varu, who is spearheading the agitation, said they had demanded free electricity to the farmers till July when the new crop would arrive. Besides, the interest on the farm loan granted to the farmers should also be waived off, he added.

The association had also urged the state government to build more sugar factories so that vegetable growing farmers could switch over to sugarcane farming as option. The government had announced constructing 100 cold storages. “With the cold storage, we had demanded that a processing unit also by the side,” Varu said. 

Interestingly, cash crunch following demonetisation was not the issue for the short demand as had been in other parts of the country. Every year, the state faces the problem of lack of demand but this season, the period had been lengthy, Varu said.