For Kannaiyan Subramanian, who had taken to social media 10 days ago to sell the cabbage raised on his field, there is a lot more quantity that remains unsold.
The 50-year-old farmer from Talavadi block in Erode district grows cabbage on 3.5 acres on a plot located on Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. He took the land on lease from three farmers at Voddarahalli in Chamrajnagar district in Karnataka and raised cabbage spending nearly ₹4 lakh. Unable to find buyers for the produce, he posted a 15-second video on Twitter and tagged Rata Tata of Tata Trust and Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group.
The video he posted was viewed by over 3.5 lakh people on Twitter and support for the farmer poured in. “But two-third of the produce is yet to be sold,” he pointed out.
Mr. Kannaiyan told The Hindu that a Coimbatore-based company was the first to purchase eight tonne cabbage while Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya procured 13 tonnes of cabbage so far for distributing to the poor. “About 100 tonne of cabbage is ready for harvesting, in which about 15 tonnes had gone waste”, he said. He had sold 30 tonnes till Saturday. The State governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala should procure from all the farmers in the area directly and distribute vegetables through the Horticulture Department to the public”, he said. “Not all farmers can take up to social media to marketing their produce,” he added.
The farmer said that break-even price of cabbage is ₹ 5 per kg, but he is selling it at ₹ 3.5 a kg. There are many small and marginal farmers in the peripheral area who are selling their produce at a meagre price of less than ₹ 2.50 per kg. “They cannot highlight their problems through social media and the governments and political parties should procure directly from farmers,” according to Mr. Kannaiyan. He also wants the government to deploy its buses to be used for transporting produce to the markets.
