In some ways, these are very liberated farmers: they don’t depend on agents or middlemen to sell their produce. Instead, they have aggregators who get them the right price for their brinjals, ladies fingers, snake gourds and other vegetables.
“Earlier, I used to send vegetables to the Koyambedu vegetable market through agents but I would get payment for only 40 kg instead of the 50 kg that I sent. On top of that, the agent would take a commission of 10 per cent leading to a loss. Now, I make a neat profit of Rs. 40,000 per acre, which is good,” said M. Mohan of Edaiyur in Chengalpet.
Thanks to the Agriculture Department’s Petro Metro Cluster Development Programme, farmers of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore districts are able to get better prices for their vegetables that are collected by aggregators, who take the greens to various areas in the city.
“The aggregators just take Re. 1 per kilo as commission and they give us the rates for the entire bag we supply and cash is paid every day,” said V. Parasuraman, a farmer from Ponn Vilaindha Kalathur in Chengalpet. The department provides a subsidy for vans with refrigerators to the clusters to transport the vegetables that are also reasonably priced.
Retail shops in Nanganallur, Adambakkam, Madhanankuppam and Mambalam sell vegetables from these farmers. “The prices are fixed according to demand from customers. For instance, on Sunday, we had a bad day for ladies finger so we sold it at Rs. 8 a kilo. But today again, the demand was good, so prices rose to Rs. 15 a kilo,” said V. Danasekaran from Thiruvannaikoil village.
This is just the beginning of the vegetable season. “We are happy with the scheme. But if they give us traditional seeds instead of hybrid ones, we would be able to grow organic vegetables that have a better market. They are also a healthier option for farmers like us and consumers. It would be nice if subsidy is provided under the scheme for farm implements as we face acute labour shortage,” said a farmer.
