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Cold storages to get priority

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 10 � State Agriculture Minister Pramila Rani Brahma today told the Assembly that the State Government was according priority to cold storages and securing market linkage for the farmers so that they got due remuneration for the produce without getting exploited by middlemen.

The Minister was replying to a call attention by Ananta Deka (CPM) who, citing a recent report in Dainik Asam, said that vegetables were being sold at throwaway prices in Nagaon district for want of storage facilities and market linkage.

Pointing out that the poor farmers had been subjected to a raw deal mainly because the Government had little control on the market, Deka said that the huge disparity in the prices of vegetables in the villages (producing areas) and the towns exposed how the growers were forced to sell their produce to the middlemen at cheap rates, resulting in the coterie of middlemen earning big profits at the cost of the farmers and the consumers. �This has been going on because the farmers cannot store their perishable produce and the Government has no control on the market,� he said, adding that the State�s economy would never prosper as long as the vast segment of farmers continued to be exploited.

Brahma gave an account of a few measures being undertaken by the Government, saying that a 5,000-MT cold storage was coming up in Nagaon and some interventions were being made under the ongoing Horticulture Technology Mission.

�We are contemplating a policy which will enable the farmers to sell their produce through growers� societies, with a subsidy on the transportation cost,� she said.

The Minister also revealed that the State Agricultural Marketing Board was engaged in a drive to develop the market infrastructure in the rural areas.

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