Watermelon farmers facing tough situation
Value addition through juice production can increase profit: MS Khaidem
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 21 2021:
Farmers losing perishable products or profit during the main production season has been a common issue in the state and the Covid-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult for farmers to find proper market for selling their products.
Again, among the farmers, watermelon farmers are the worst hit in the state today.
Some watermelon farmers from Wabagai area of Kakching district told The People's Chronicle that watermelon became one of the major cash crops for several farmers in the state recently.
Unfortunately, watermelon farmers are now facing the predicament of losing their products due to lack of marketing facility during this Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result, they are now forced to sell their products at a much cheaper rate thereby incurring loss.
Despite this, they are facing difficulties in finding buyers, the farmers said.
Meanwhile, agriculture expert MS Khaidem said that farmers are now able to produce good yield due to proper knowledge and various inputs.
However, one thing that the farmers should think beforehand is the market and other infrastructures like cold storage in processing units.
It needs proper study of the crop variety, time of production, market demand, buyer and processing opportunities of that particular product.
The farmers can rely on farmers' production companies, agripreneurs, entrepreneurs and self-help groups for marketing, storing and processing of their products in order to ensure a proper chain of supply, productivity and profitability.
In short, post-harvest management is a key component in attaining success in any farming venture, he said.
Both the farmers and government are speaking about cold storage units very often.
However, such facilities are not much important in the present scenario since the state does not have the production capacity for storing the products for a week.
Besides, storing in cold storage units will incur additional expenditure to the farmers and they will not get commensurate profit from their products.
Instead, the key requirement for the state at present is processing units with new technologies to add value to the products and bring better profit margin to the farmers.
Farmers or farmers' production companies can start such venture, make their own brand and increase their income manifold, he said.
For instance, tomato and watermelon farmers of the state are facing hard times due to lack of market.
Processing these products into processed products like sauce and juices would bring better profit and these products can be stored longer.
There are several educated youths with technical knowledge of processing and they can be provided finance to set up such processing units.
He also said that horticulture and agriculture department are providing assistance to such schemes and one can also seek assistance from the ministry of food processing.