Lack of markets forcing farmers to abandon polyhouses

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 24

The state government has announced to continue giving subsidy of 85 per cent for the construction of polyhouses to farmers.

The scheme was launched by the previous BJP government and an amount of Rs300 crore was spent on providing subsidy to farmers for the construction of polyhouses.

The idea behind the scheme was to allow farmers to make optimum use of limited land available with them and make the state a vegetable-producing hub. Farmers from lower regions of the states, including Kangra, Una and Hamirpur district, took maximum benefit of the scheme and installed polyhouses.

However, the objectives of the scheme were never met as most farmers who installed polyhouses have either sold them off or closed down the operations as they failed to find market for vegetables they produced in the polyhouses.

Rajesh Sharma, a farmer from Kangra, who had installed a polyhouse, said his polyhouse was damaged during a storm and he did not have the money to reconstruct it.

“The polyhouses supplied to farmers in the state are prone to damage by storms. Since the entire Kangra valley generally receives heavy rain and storm, several farmers in the region suffered losses as their polyhouses got damaged,” he said.

Vegetable-marketing network need felt

Farmers, especially in Kangra district, do not have a proper market to sell their produce. Even local markets in Kangra district receive vegetables from Punjab.

If the state government creates market for selling the vegetable produce of farmers of Kangra, farmers could be encouraged to produce more and benefit from the government’s polyhouse scheme.

Raghav Guleria, a farmer from the Guler area installed a polyhouse at his remote Nandpur village.

He was still using the polyhouse and growing vegetables in it, but said since his village was located at a remote area, there was no market for his produce.

“I generally distribute my produce to fellow villagers or use it in my house. Until the state government develops a vegetable marketing network in the entire state, there is no use in promoting growth by farmers,” he said.

Infested with pests

Farmers also faced technical problems in polyhouses installed during the stint of the previous BJP government. A large number of farmers had reported that their polyhouses had got infested with pests and had become unviable.

The experts from the Palampur Agriculture University after studying the problems reported by farmers suggested that the polyhouses should have two doors to prevent the attack by pests.

However, the company that had supplied polyhouses in the state supplied just single door polyhouses to farmers.

Farmers were asked to spend money from their own pockets for converting the polyhouses from single to two doors. Since most of the farmers failed to do so their polyhouses became infested with pests and were rendered useless.