TURA, June 6: The desperate condition of the farming sector was once again brought to light after banana farmers in Adokgre in North Garo Hills (NGH) preferred to abandon their stock, rather than take it back home, after it went unsold.
A heart pinching picture of huge stalks of bananas abandoned at the Adokgre banana market went viral on social media a few days ago leading to a huge outcry from residents with an appeal to the state government to set up cold storages.
In the picture and subsequent videos available, cows can be seen munching on the bananas that have been abandoned by the farmers.
A little search into the situation showed why exactly farmers actually chose to abandon their products than take it back home. As per locals, it does not always happen. It is only when businessmen from Bihar and West Bengal are unable to attend their local weekly markets that a situation like this arises. Further, with Assam traders only able to buy as much as their markets need, the situation for the farmers is far from ideal.
The biggest bane for the farmers has been the absolute lack of support from the government in either ensuring a proper market for them or storage if their goods go unsold. With most of the farmers actually cycling their way from their villages with stacks of over 10 huge banana stalks, it’s a no brainer as to why they prefer to abandon their produce than take it back home.
Interestingly Adokgre and its nearby Garo villages in Meghalaya are one of the biggest producers of the ‘jahaji’ variety of bananas in the entire North East. The biggest banana market in Asia, Daranggri, also depends mostly on bananas brought from the remote villages of North Garo Hills. The variety is widely popular in West Bengal and Bihar besides other states, where each banana itself sells for about Rs 5. However for the farmers, who make these hard trips to various local markets, traders only pay between Rs 50 – 100 per stalk. Each stalk consists of at least 150 bananas.
“If we bring it on vehicles (mini trucks) it costs as much as Rs 10 per stalk. If traders are plenty, most of the stock is cleared. However if these are not sold, it costs us double to take it back home. Often there is no vehicle to take it back home even if we wanted to. Carrying it back is not an option. Hence we abandon the stalks for cows to feed on,” said a farmer from Adokgre.
With bananas being perishable items, the shelf life for these fruits is extremely short if not kept in a food preservation godown. There is however no such help for the locals to fall back on. Abandoning their products becomes a certainty if they are unable to sell.
Earlier the farmers had written to the state government seeking cold storages for various markets in Garo Hills so that the farmers do not succumb to pressure tactics from the buyers.
“They understand that if we do not relent on prices, they can just wait till we are desperate and buy it at even lower prices. With cold storage, at least we would have had a negotiating chance,” added another farmer.
