Daijiworld Media Network - Brahmavar (SP)

Brahmavar, Jan 30: A team of farmers had come together and grown ash gourds in a ten acre field within Kody Kanyana gram panchayat limits near Kota. Now the crop is ready to be harvested but because the market for ash gourds is not favourable now, the farmers are facing a tricky situation.

Krishna Poojary, Vishwanath Poojary, Shekhar Marakala, and Raju Poojary have grown ash gourds in ten acres of land. Because of untimely rain and also because the veins were afflicted by the yellowing disease, the crops this time have not been encouraging. But they have been finding it hard to get a market for their produce. At the same time, the price has been unreasonably low.

Once the ash gourd is ready to be harvested, it cannot be left in the fields for long as they get damaged and begin to rot. Several of the ash gourds have already suffered damages. In the market, the price of ash gourd now is ten rupees a kilogram, but the middlemen have been offering a price of three rupees per kilogram. If they sell at this price, the young farmers will not be getting anything in return for the hard work done by them. These farmers have urged the government to buy the crop at minimum support price.

The ten acre field in Kody Kanyana has about 40 tonnes of ash gourd. Krishna Poojary says that he and his friends have been growing ash gourd or watermelon every year in this field and this time they opted to grow ash gourd. Because of climatic conditions and changed environment, the crop is less and the price it commands have disheartened them.

Bhuvaneshwari, duty director of horticulture, Udupi, has suggested them to try direct marketing. Alternatively, she has suggested trying through HOPCOMS. The district does not have a huge storage facility.