Farmers would directly sell fresh vegetables from their farms to the consumers without middlemen, under the Farm Fresh Vegetables on Wheels programme under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna, Collector and Chairman of RKVY in the district V. Sheshadri said while launching the programme in the district on Monday.
The Union Horticulture Ministry initiated the scheme under public private partnership to provide a link to the farmers with the agri-based private sector and help them enter the market with quality products.
Two out of the five vehicles sanctioned for the district were flagged off by Mr. Sheshadri. They will go round the areas where apartment and housing complexes are concentrated. Groups of farmers formed into societies and will sell their products in the city. The societies are formed in K. Kotapadu, Chodavaram and Padmanabham mandals. One of the members will bring the vegetables grown by other members to the city, driving the van himself. Mr. Shesadri handed over the key of the mobile van to secretary of the society at Adduru Satyanarayana to mark the launching of RKVY in the district. Additional Joint Collector Y. Narasimha Rao was also present.
Visakhapatnam is the second district in the State after Hyderabad in which the Farm Fresh Vegetables on Wheels under RKVY was introduced, Assistant Director of Horticulture G. Prabhakara Rao said. Small and marginal farmers are preferred for the scheme. Fifteen to 20 of them form as a society and each farmer is given Rs. 54,750 for securing quality seeds, fertilizers, pesticides along with vermin bed, shade net house, etc.
