Abdullakutty was a regular at the weekly auction at the Agricultural Urban Wholesale Market, Vengeri, for the past few years until the Nipah scare struck Kozhikode district a month ago.
The 50-year-old farmer from Manjeri used to take a tonne of vegetables to the auction. But no longer. “It is not just the scare created by Nipah, but farm prices have declined steeply after the rain havoc as well,” Narayanan Kalpakassery, chairman of Sangha Maithri, an apex body of farmers’ club, and convener of the auction committee, said.
Like him, Kunhi Mohammed of Pookkatteri in Malappuram has been staying away from the auctioning conducted on Mondays and Thursdays at the Vengeri market since the outbreak of the disease in mid-May.
“However, he turned up along with five other farmers from Kozhikode and Malappuram districts on Monday. Following the Nipah scare for nearly a month, the vegetable and fruit markets have been dull. "Hopefully the markets would pick up in the coming week,” he said.
Certainly, the double whammy of Nipah and rain havoc hit farmers hard during the Ramazan season. Almost 50% of business dropped abruptly. Usually 20-25 farmers reach the market to sell their produce twice a week. And an equal number of green grocers and vegetable merchants, both retail and wholesale, take part in the auctioning.
But the Nipah-triggered panic made fruit vendors shy away from buying banana and plantain, one of the main produce of farmers, especially from Kozhikode and Malappuram. These were sold at lower rates between ₹32 and ₹28 a kg.
Then rain havoc also badly affected the local farmers. More loses were reported. Some had difficulty selling the remaining pesticide-free okra, pumpkin, bitter gourd and snake gourd. However, the Vengeri market has been providing succour to the farmers.
The market was started five years ago. Around 200 farmers have registered with the market. Transportation allowance is given to farmers: the maximum allowance is ₹2.5 a kg of produce for a distance above 50 km and the minimum is ₹1.50 up to 25 km.
