Koraput: Vegetable prices nosedive

JEYPORE: It’s a problem of plenty for Koraput horticulturists. While there is a bumper harvest of cabbage, cauliflower and tomato  in the last three months, prices of most of the vegetables nose-dived to Rs 5 a kg hitting the farmers hard. They were selling at Rs 20 a kg till December.  Farmers said even as 100 trucks of these vegetables are produced in the district, the market demand is just half of it. Earlier, the farmers had an option to sell their produce in the neighbouring districts but this year, the demand for vegetables isn’t much.  Worse, the district has no proper cold storage facility which forces the farmers to make distress sales. “Though there is bumper harvest of vegetables this year, the situation is such that we are not even able to realise the labour cost from the sales, forget about profit,” lamented a farmer J Ramesh of Kothariput.  Umesh Samantray, secretary of Jeypore RMC, said prices of vegetables depend upon  demand and supply. “This time, the high production has brought down the prices,” he added. Meanwhile, pani panchayats of Upper Kolab project have urged the State Government to open at least 10 cold storages for helping the poor farmers store their produce.