ELURU: The very objective of Rythu Bazaars — to let the farmers sell their produce directly to consumers and earn good money — is not being met in Eluru of West Godavari district.
The reason for Ryhtu Bazaar being set up was to help farmers fend against middlemen who have been denying them fair prices for their produce, causing an artificial increase in the cost of vegetables and other essential commodities.
The district administration has set up two Rythu Bazaars — one at Pathebada and the other is in Agraharam in Eluru city. Given the economic rates and quality of produce, people started flocking them. The Pattebada Rythu Bazaar was run by farmers initially, but later, the government allowed DWCRA groups to run the shops in addition to the farmers’ shops. For the past few years, farmers have not been able to get a place in Rythu Bazaar. DWCRA women too did not have a chance to run the shops. Middlemen continue to enter Rythu Bazaar and grab shops claiming to be farmers. In fact, 50 per cent of the shops are being run by retail vegetable merchants.
As the demand for Rythu Bazaars has increased, the administration has opened seven DWCRA stalls, 60 vegetable stalls, besides groceries, rice, egg and tribal products stalls. With this, the wholesalers and retailers of the vegetables who have run their shops in the town for decades, have managed to get shops in Rythu Bazaar with proxy names. The estate officers of the Rythu bazaars have to announce the prices after the stock is brought to the bazaars by the farmers in the morning. However, they are deciding the prices before the stocks reach the bazaar. As a result, the variation of the prices between Rythu Bazaar and Open marke is not much.
In case of Rythu bazaar in Agraharam, it had received good response earlier, but not any more. The Municipal Corporation’s New Vegetable Market is located nearer to this rythu bazaar. When the prices of the vegetables announced in the rythu bazaar, the retailers in the new vegetable market scale down the prices below that of the Rythu Bazaars.
Because of the persisting issue, the farmers who bring their produce did not get income from the bazaar. Now no farmer is in the Agraharam (One-town) area Rythu Bazaar and it is being used by vendors of flower plantations. Some women who used to sell coconut and lemons in this market were thrown out by officials, forcing them to take their stalls onto the roads. Many complain that officials along with retail and wholesale vegetable traders are colluding to shut down this Rythu Bazaar.
