THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when white-collar workers face pay hike deferment and salary cuts due to the Covid-induced slowdown, 83 farmers in Anad, a rural village in the capital district, received their yearly bonus on Saturday. They are members of the weekly market, which is run by the Ecoshop under the Anad agricultural office in Thiruvananthapuram.
Ecoshop hosts a market on Thursdays from 9am to 11am at Anad junction, in which vegetables, plantains and tubers produced by local farmers are put for sale. “The Ecoshop only facilitates business between the producer and customer. A base price will be fixed for each farmer’s produce and auctioned off. Customers include the general public and traders. The highlight is that the farmer gets his remuneration on the spot,” said Jayakumar, Anad agricultural officer who conceived the weekly market.
The market was launched in November 2019 and the sales volume, at present, is over `15 lakh. Each farmer pays five per cent of their earnings to Ecoshop, which spends three per cent to meet the establishment cost and repays two per cent to the farmers as bonus. The bonus depends on the business conducted by the farmer. The largest seller got nearly `3,000 in the first bonus disbursement on Saturday.
Vamanapuram MLA D K Murali opined that the weekly market was a model for the state. “Here, farmers are saved from exploitation by middlemen. Consumers too get fresh produce at affordable rates,” he said. Murali was the chief guest at the function held to distribute the bonus to farmers.
Following the success of Thursday market, Ecoshop started a Sunday market, where vegetables for households are put for sale, at the same place from 7am to 9am. A weekly market is run at Kowdiar on all Thursdays from 3pm to 6pm. The market functions near the government school at Kuravankonam. The market makes average sales of `36,000, according to Jayakumar.
According to Jayakumar, “Traders in the locality too depend on the Thursday market for their purchases and are forced to sell them at fair prices. Because if they don’t, people will flock to our market. Thus, a fair deal is ensured for both the producers and customers.”