HT Correspondent

BARPETA, June 9: Farmers of Mandia, Bardalani village in Barpeta have a reason to cherish in the midst of pandemic as they could sell 21MT of pumpkin from Farm Gate to wholesale buyers at Bara Bazar in Kolkata on June 8.

This was an emergency market linkage initiative for helping the farmers of the district in marketing their surplus agricultural produce during the pandemic.

The market linkage from Farm Gate of Assam to Kolkata wholesaler was initiated end to end under Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART) on special request of Tej Prasad Bhusal, the deputy commissioner of Barpeta.

The operation on the ground was supported by officials of the district agricultural office in Barpeta.

The benefitted farmer Rahimuddin from 3 Bordoloni, Mandia had a good harvest of pumpkin this year but was struggling to sell the same due to the restricted movements during the pandemic. He expressed his gratitude to the department and officials for the timely intervention.