Sunusiphai farmers fear wastage of produces
Source: Chronicle News Service
Bishnupur, May 27 2021:
Farmers in Sunusiphai under Moirang AC of Bishnupur district have raised concerns of their produces going waste if the government and authority concerned fail to pay attention.
According to Sunusiphai Farmers' Club president Laishram Shyamkumar Singh, the main produces include watermelon, cucumber, pumpkin, ash gourd, bottle gourd, sponge gourd and bitter gourd.
As there is high yield and stable income, the farmers have also cultivated a strong work ethics.
As such, the Club was registered in 2014 and the first Watermelon Festival was held in May, 2017 under the sponsorship of the Horticulture Department.
Shyamkumar continued that around 44 farmers are utilising 44 sangams of paddy field to mainly plant watermelon and other crops, thereby generating an income of Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh per sangam.
After the produces are harvested, they then grow rice thereby, helping in the development of Sunusiphai.
"Although the annual Watermelon Festival was put to a halt last year with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the farmers were able to sell their produces and earn some money to feed their families.
However, the situation is different this year as the farmers are unable to market their produces due to the lockdown/curfew, which has raised concerns of all of it going waste", he said and remarked that a huge loss would be incurred, nof to mention of the impact on the farmers, if the government and the authority concerned do not pay attention to this issue.
Presently, around 20-30 percent of the yield is being sold at Sunusiphai Community Hall with strict adherenee to the SOP, while the remaining 70 percent are still at the paddy fields.
Appreciating MOMA, Works minister Th Biswa-jit's wife Jun Jun, Kege Moirang Kendra Apunba Lup and Moirang AC MLA P Saratchandra Singh for purchasing the watermelons and arranging transportations for the same, Shyamkumar appealed to interested people who want to sell the water melons to purchase the same from the farmers by visiting Sunusiphai Community Hall.