Highway Bazaars planned for horticulture farmers

short codes to place the image(s) inside the content. And Use ##AD-CODE## short code to place the ad.- First bazaar to come up at Uppunethalapalle in Raptadu mandal
- More than 10 bazaars planned in the district
- Master plan being chalked out to support the marketing efforts of horticulture farmers

Anantapur: Highway Bazaars are being planned on the NH-44 by the Department of Horticulture to make it easier for farmers to market and transport their produce. The first bazaar would come up at Uppunethalapalle in Raptadu mandal. More than 10 bazaars are being planned in the district. The Farmers’ Society of Uppunethalapalle is now in the process of seting up a highway bazaar on the Anantapur-Bengaluru highway for selling the farm products and also value added by-products in the form of fruit juices etc. It will also be a transit point for transporting products directly from the farms to nearby Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Godowns, cold storages and pack houses would be part of the Grand Highway Bazaar.

Horticulture Deputy Director Subba Rayudu told The Hans India that several highway bazaars were being planned which would be set up with the active participation of farmers. The bazaars would be a rallying point for farmers to either sell their produce on the spot thereby avoiding the middlemen or used as a transit point for transporting the produce and products to other towns and States, said Subba Rayudu. He said that farmers, private buyers and government departments should work together to make the concept of highway bazaars an astounding success.

Meanwhile, to give a boost to the marketing efforts of horticulture farmerse, the department of Horticulture under the guidance of district collector Kona Sashidhar is preparing an action plan to support horticulture farmers by establishing cold storages, integrated pack houses, pre-cooling units, Refer vans, Ripening chambers, cashew processing centres and low cost onion storage structures as part of a master plan worth Rs 5 crore to upgrade horticulture cultivation and set up processing centres.

The action plan will soon be implemented in the current financial year. Horticulture has been growing by leaps and bounds in the district since 2015-16 and the district had registered a steep rise in new horticulture plantations and expansion of acreage owing to the favourable conditions for the expansion of horticulture plantations including banana, papaya, cashew and other hybrid vegetables

Ravi P Benjamin