Horticorp to revive micro-level crop planning

Thiruvananthapuram: Horticorp is bringing back an idea-- micro-level crop planning-- introduced during the people’s planning process  to ensure that farmers do not suffer from price drops due to  market glut.  It will decide  which crop should be promoted in which area. This comes  in the wake of the dramatic drop in prices, especially for vegetables like snake gourd, which do not have much demand.

Corporation MD Ranjan S. Karippai says, “by October or earlier, we will conduct a workshop to share the idea. We aim to conduct planning at block level. Tomato which is produced in Thrissur may move to Ernakulam, or snake gourd produced here may be sold somewhere else,” he said. In the eighties, the concept was put to practice in some places as part of people’s planning and was found to be successful. Later, it was not taken forward.

As an immediate measure, the corporation has bought the excess vegetables from farmers at a fair price and made them available through its outlets at the slashed prices, according to Mr Ranjan. Vegetables that are not sold in the market are being given away free to charity institutions, he said. Farmers grew excess vegetables in  Palakkad, Charummoodu in Alappuzha  and Neyyattinkara in the south of Thiruvananthapuram.