Staff Reporter
DIMAPUR, JULY 14
Vegetable farmers from Phek district, especially those who are dealing in cabbages, have suggested the idea of an independent “third-party” body to regulate the wholesale price of vegetables bought and sold between local farmers and (wholesale) traders in Dimapur.
To put this suggestion in proper context, cabbage growers in different villages under Phek district reportedly sells their produce to wholesale traders from Dimapur at Rs 4 per kilo, that too after reaching Dimapur. And the same stock of vegetable are in turn sold in the market at prices as high as Rs 20-25 per kilo.
Even the recent violence at Murgipatti, involving a Naga farmer and a group of non-Naga wholesale traders, could trace its root to the absence of such independent mechanism to monitor or even regulate the price of cabbage in the wholesale market.
According to the president of Phek District Farmers’ Union, Khazi Lea, the motive behind this suggestion was not to raise the price at which the farmers sell their produce to the wholesale traders but to ensure that the consumers get their goods at a cheap price.
“We want them to buy their cabbage at a cheap price because we (farmers) are selling our produce cheaply to the wholesale traders,” he told reporters on Tuesday here in Dimapur. He felt that this could be achieved by installing an independent “third-party” body to regulate the market price.
On early Tuesday morning, a group of villagers led by the Phek District Farmers’ Union arrived at the Tenyimi Complex in Dimapur with around 67 metric tonnes of cabbage bought from farmers in the four villages of Zhavame, Razeba, Tsupfume and Zelomi under Phek district.
The newly floated Naga Agro and Allied Products Trade Agency (NAAPTA) has reportedly assured to sell off the stock to traders outside the state. According to Khazi Lea, they had purchased the cabbages from the farmers at Rs 5 per kilo.
“Even though we might end up incurring losses, we decided to pay them more than what they have been getting earlier,” he said. Even on the way, while transporting the cabbage to Dimapur, no tax was levied except on two trucks by KMC members near Jakhama, he said.
Meanwhile, the 12-hours Karbi Anglong bandh called by the Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers on Tuesday prevented the transportation of the cabbages into Assam. If sources are to be believed, rival traders in Dimapur have utilized this intervening period to persuade traders in Assam not to buy the cabbages sold through NAAPTA.
The cabbages will also be sold tomorrow at the Wednesday bazaar in Supermarket, Dimapur. The dealers have informed that the retail price for tomorrow has been fixed at Rs 15 per kilo while for wholesale price (those who purchase in bags) the rate has been fixed at Rs 10 per kilo.
The dealers have also requested interested buyers to contact them at this number: 8974875654.
