KOCHI: Celebrating Vishu–one of the most popular festival seasons in Kerala–is not going to be an easy task amid the lockdown for Malayalis. Celebrated as the harvest festival, this is the time of the year when markets are flooded with fruits, vegetables, flowers and other local market favourites. In a move to help farmers and also enable a low-key Vishu celebration, the Agriculture Department is gearing up to open farmer facilitation centres across the state ahead of the festival.
The farmers’ facilitation centres would act as a platform for local farmers to sell their produce which was cultivated especially for the Vishu season. Due to the ban on the export of local produce because of the lockdown, farmers have landed in a fix and the facilitation centre would be a boon for them.
“We will be opening multiple facilitation centres for farmers in each district to ensure the local produce gets sold. The farmers would sell their products at these centres. We may open such centres at the taluk level or based on the requirement in each location. These centres would be opened immediately and we will be seeking assistance from the police authorities to ensure that the precautionary guidelines are followed,” said an official.
The official said it was necessary to intervene, else farmers would face a huge loss. “We devised this plan in a short time span to help them. The Horticorp outlets across the state wouldn’t alone sell the tonnes of vegetables produced here. So far, Horticorp has sold around 150 tonnes of vegetables from local farmers across the state which are only a small quantity,” said the official.
‘Kani vellari’ farmers in deep crisis
Farmers cultivating ‘kani vellari’, which is on high demand during Vishu, have landed in a fix because of the lockdown, the official said. “Around 200 tonnes of kani vellari have been produced in the state anticipating its demand during Vishu across the country and abroad too. But now it’s impossible for these farmers to export the produce to other states or other countries because of the lockdown. This is mostly cultivated in the northern parts of Kerala,” said the official.
“We have started transporting kani vellari, mangoes and pineapples cultivated in Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode to every part of the state to ensure the products reach every market in the state. In Thiruvananthapuram, we are delivering fruit and vegetable kits online to customers. We have plans to start online delivery in other cities too,” the official added.
facilitation centres
The farmers’ facilitation centres would act as a platform for local farmers to sell their produce which was cultivated especially for the Vishu season. The move is necessary in the wake of farmers facing huge losses due to the lockdwn