GUWAHATI: Right under the nose of the administration and agriculture department a vegetable syndicate continues to disrupt the wholesale market of vegetables in Guwahati City. According to farmers who have been selling at the Pamohi, Garchuk market this vegetable syndicate is affecting the livelihood of vegetable growers from Darrang district.
Most of the vegetables in Guwahati are procured or brought from Kharupetia and nearby places due to its proximity and ease of transportation. Due to the interference of this syndicate, traders have stopped coming to the wholesale vegetable market at Pamohi. There have been allegations of threats and other pressure tactics by this syndicate on the vegetable traders and so the farmers from Kharupetia’s Balugaon, Fakirpara and Bechimari are avoiding the Guwahati wholesale market for the past two days.
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Reporting from Balugaon, Darrang News Live reporter Hemanta Barua said, “Many small farmers from Balugaon area go to sell their products at the Pamohi vegetable market in Guwahati so that the buyers can procure at a reasonable rate. But recently, they have been facing difficulties in selling their farm produce in Guwahati.”
“Our small farmers and traders sell their produce at the Garchuk vegetable market in Guwahati. Due to lockdown our business has been badly hit. Now, as the markets have opened these farmers went back to sell their produce but their produce was forcibly taken away by these people and the price was also decided by them. Later, they paid these poor farmers half the price of the produce. This has completely ruined the market environment and prices have been affected. We request the agriculture minister Atul Bora to take action and immediately close this syndicate in Garchuk market,” said an affected trader.
“A syndicate has started in the Pamohi, Garchuk market. Earlier, we used to form small groups of three to four farmers and took our produce and sold there. Now they (syndicate) demand that we give them our produce and they will determine the rates. They are exploiting us by not giving us the true value of our produce. We are poor farmers and we survive on farming and by selling our produce in Guwahati. But this syndicate is spoiling the market,” said a farmer.
“Because of this syndicate we have stopped taking our produce to the Pamohi vegetable wholesale market for the past few days. The lockdown has already dampened the market and now this syndicate is creating trouble for poor farmers. Farmers have taken loans to produce these vegetables. I urge the agriculture department and the minister to end this. We have been providing the vegetables at a reasonable rate that the general public could afford,” said another farmer and trader.
