Farmers hope to cash on agri retail chains

Amit Agnihotri / TNN / Feb 9, 2007, 03:10 IST

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Net-vegetable cultivation gives better quality and enhances per acre yield of the farmer.

Farmers hope to cash on agri retail chains

CHANDIGARH: Eyeing booming business prospects likely to come with the advent of big corporates like Reliance, ITC and Subhiksha into agri retail chains, more and more farmers in Punjab are shifting to growing net-vegetables.
Net-vegetable cultivation gives better quality and enhances per acre yield of the farmer. As perishables are grown under a net, it facilitates partly controlled environment and checks disease and pest attack. Thus, the system ensures better price for the produce to the farmer. Nishan Singh, of Kalyan village in Sangrur district, is only expressing the sentiments of his fraternity when he says: "We hope the big companies will buy our produce, which is of good quality. We are increasing the acreage under net-vegetable cultivation."
He says this method allows him to take early and late crops, unlike in the traditional method. For instance, says Singh, he can grow an additional crop of tomatoes or capsicums before and after November �� the normal season for growing both cash crops.
Chamkaur Singh, another farmer in Ina Bajwa village of the district, adds: "We are planning to put around five acres under net-vegetables. We did some trials on a small piece of land earlier and are satisfied with results.

We hope the big agri-retail players will source produce from us."
Farmers say if the corporates do not source vegetables from them, they will set up their own marketing network. The move aims at promoting crop diversification and taking the farmers away from the traditional wheat/paddy cycle.
Right from providing guidance to helping with loans, it is being jointly promoted by the Punjab State Farmers Commission, the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and the State Bank of India. This technique provides hope to small farmers who need to be pulled out of the debt trap.

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