Farmers of Janakpur village in Balangir district led by Zilla Krushak Mahasangha president Sudhir Parischha on Saturday dumped tomatoes on the road in front of the district Collectorate here protesting distress sale of the vegetable and demanding a permanent mechanism to protect them.
“I had cultivated tomato in two acres of land and invested a lot of money. Now, traders are not giving more than Re 1 per kg of tomato, which is very low even meet expenditure incurred for harvesting. Hence, we have thrown tomato at the Collectriate,” said Birendra Bag, a farmer of Janakpur.
Sanju, another villager, also stated that she had grown tomato on three acres of land but traders are only offering 50 paise a kg. “I didn't sell and rolled them on the road. The Government should develop a mechanism to protect tomato farmers from the distress sale,” she said.
"Both the State and the Central Governments are shedding crocodile tears for development of farmers. Due to lack of farm markets and cold storage, we are not getting a remunerative price. Hence Government should provide us a market for sale of our produce and cold storages to store tomato for a future time,” demanded Parichha.
He said farmers would intensify agitation if the Government doesn’t fulfil their demand at the earliest.