Distressed sale: Farmers dump vegetables, pulses on road

Jajpur: Expressing frustration over distress sale in absence of storage facilities and adequate market system, hundreds of farmers from the district and outside under the banner of Naba Nirman Krushak Sangathan (NNKS) today staged protest in an innovative way by throwing their agricultural produce like vegetables, pulses items on the road at Chandikhol in the district.

Huge dumps of vegetables, grams, groundnuts were seen along the road near Chandikhol junction after farmers were forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. They took to this unique protest due to steep fall in wholesale prices of their produces, a farmer said.

Vehicular communication on NH-16 passing through the town was paralysed after the activists blocked the road by dumping groundnuts and pulses and staging a sit-in.

“The farmers of Jajpur today put forth their demand in a complete non-violent way. The Collector was apprised about our ‘satyagraha’ a month ago. Now, he rejected our prior information. This shows how the government machineries are functioning in the State,” NNKS advisor Soumya Ranjan Patnaik said.

Youths of farming community are reluctant to take up agriculture and have started migrating in search of jobs. This is only because of wrong policies of government, he added warning the government that the protests will continue till farmers issues are resolved.