Telangana’s second-largest chilly market, Khammam Agriculture Market, is expected to reopen after two months of lockdown, from May 27. As per sources, the state government has given a clean chit for reopening agriculture market yards, with the government’s lockdown relaxation norms for agricultural-related activities. With the market reopening, many farmers, especially chilly growers, and other organizations are demanding to sell the leftover farm produce at remunerative prices in the market yards. The farmers who have been affected by the lockdown wish to sell their produce in the market to bear their losses.
The Telangana Rythu Sangham (Jai Kisan Movement) has been urging the government to resume the transactions at the market yards just so to enable the small and medium farmers to get a better price for their farm produce. They have been looking into farmers’ inability to afford the stocking of chilly produce in the cold storages, hence, pleaded for the market to reopen.
The district unit of the Rythu Sangham has submitted a memorandum to the Khammam Agricultural Market Committee chairman M Venkata Ramana underscoring the issues of the farmers producing labor-intensive crops and their obstacles to stock, transport and sell their farm produce during the lockdown period.
The authorities are focusing on arranging all the things of necessity to make sure the reopening of the market doesn’t fail to implement preventive measures in the Agriculture Market Yard premises so that social distancing could be maintained and the spread of coronavirus could be contained, even after the market reopens.
