N. Umapathy and his friends at the Cheldhigari Palli Horticulture Farmers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society near Ramakuppam, are a relieved lot these days.
Their agricultural produce, instead of going through the middlemen, who used to fix the price, now goes directly to the consumers. Thanks to the initiative by Chittoor district's Department of Horticulture that has introduced a scheme to reduce the intervention of middlemen.
The programme – Public Private Partnership for Integrated Agricultural Development (PPP-IAD), aims at promoting self-sufficiency among farmers and reduces their dependence on middlemen. Like-minded farmers, who have set up societies under the tag of – Farmers Producers Processors Organisations (FPPOs)-- were provided with vegetable vending vans, so that they can directly sell vegetables to customers.
“This is a welcome step as we always wanted to eliminate the intervention of middlemen. Now, we not only sell them directly to consumers but also export the excess to Chennai markets,” said Mr. Umapathy, stacking vegetables on the shelves of vending van. “We supply 5-6 tonnes of vegetables to Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), depending on their requirement.”
Speaking to The Hindu , M. Venkateswara Reddy, Assistant Director of Horticulture (Tirupati Division), said the scheme proposed by Government of India, under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), has been functioning well by assisting farmers at various stages of their work such as pre-harvest, post-harvest, marketing, transportation and storage. “This year, we have received two vending vans (each worth Rs.4.5 lakh) from the government and it would be given to a group of farmers (a minimum of 15 members) with a subsidy of Rs.2 lakh. By the end of this week, two fabricated vans will be handed over to farmers from Puttur and B.N.Kandriga,” he said.
