TALEIGAO: The government’s decision to create farmers’ markets under its common minimum programme has been welcomed by farmers from Taleigao with a rider that the site is easily accessible and faces a road.
Farmers from the area mostly sell their produce along roadsides and have often been blamed for traffic woes. However, farmers who also vend the produce fear that if such markets come up in internal areas, they will lose their source of livelihood as people will stay away.
A vendor said, “If we are relocated in interior areas, our daily customers will make purchases elsewhere. Most of our customers are road commuters why buy fresh vegetables as they pass by.”
She further said that they are small-time farmers and have a negligible clientele and visiting markets in far-off areas will not be feasible for them. She also said, “If the government is providing us space to conduct business along the road where people can easily park their vehicles and buy vegetables of their choice, then it is okay.”
Another woman questioned, “Why has the government woken up to its responsibilities. All these years we were eking out a living by selling vegetables along the roadside. The vegetables are cultivated in fields along the road and sold close-by. We cultivate vegetables like brinjals, cucumber, green chillies, lady fingers, leafy vegetables, white radish, red radish, corn and others. People approach us as they get fresh produce right from the fields.”
“In other seasons, we sell methi, spring onion, spinach, sweet potatoes, and local fruits like papayas, cashew nut shoots, raw bananas, leafy vegetable like kudduck and taikhilo and others,” she added.
Farmers in the state are facing a lot of problems with younger generation shying away from farming. The new generation favour white-collar jobs over farming as they feel that farming is not financially viable.
