Horticulture dept to help farmers sell, store veggies in the Nilgiris

TNN | Apr 8, 2020, 04:14 IST

Udhagamandalam: Farmers have been advised to contact horticulture officers in their taluks to either market the vegetables that they harvested or about to harvest, or use the cold storages in the district free of cost.
Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, joint director, horticulture department, said while a section of farmers were hesitant to harvest their crops as they were in dark about how to market them during the lockdown, others who had harvested were holding up the produce without marketing.
“We have advised the farmers to contact the horticulture officer or agri-marketing department officials in their area, seeking help to sell their produce. The farmers are also welcome to sell their produce directly at uzhavar sandhais in their taluks,” the official said.
He said the farmers could use the cold storage facility at the rose garden in Ooty to store the excess produce.
While the cold storage at the rose garden has a capacity of 500MT, there are eight more cold storage facilities under the agri-marketing department across the district which could also be could by the farmers free of cost, Samraj said.
The official said the farmers could contact the control room at the district collectorate at toll-free number 1077 for help to market their produce.