Punjab farmers unite to remove middle men

With the objective of getting rid of middlemen, the vegetable growers of Punjab, who recently joined hands with its national counterparts, will explore avenues of direct marketing at the local, national and international levels for their crops.

"We are exploited by middlemen, who take large chunks of our profits as their commission. To get rid of this menace and to achieve various benefits from the central government policies for the vegetable growers of the country, we have joined hands with the Vegetable Growers Association of India" Jaswinder Singh Sangha, newly elected president of Punjab Vegetable Growers Association told Business Standard.

Representatives of vegetable growers of almost all the districts of Punjab today had a meeting with Shriram Gadhave, President of Vegetable Growers Association of India, which is affiliated to National Horticulture Board of India, and chalked out the plans for the mutual benefits of the associations.

Gadhave revealed that as many as 11 vegetable growers' association of various states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa, Assam, Meghalya, Jharkhand and Bihar .

With Punjab's vegetable Growers' Association's joining hands with the national association, it would be easy to achieve the desired benefits for vegetable growers, as Punjab farmers were known for their innovative ideas in the agriculture sector, he claimed.

"The association will create direct marketing for the farmers by curtailing the role of middlemen and even act like a bridge between the government and farmers to apprise them about the policies of the government through which farmer could be benefited" Gadhave said.

"We will encourage the small farmers to develop cottage industry and processing units will be promoted and supported by the association to enable farmers to get maximum out of their crop" he claimed adding that even the exhibition with the support of the union government would be organised in every state to apprise farmers about the new technologies introduced in the field of agriculture.

Gadhave revealed that the clusters for organic certification of vegetable would be developed in almost all the state and even the association would search market at the international level for the export of crop.