Thalaivasal market

I remember reading an interview about 2 decades back, an entrepreneur about his product. He said, after so much thought he came out with this product of his bcos he felt as long as there was a wall his product wud be needed. He went on to brag as long as humanity wud be there he will have a market! All this for wall paper! And he was hailed the business man of that year and blab la bla..
But, come to think of it, it was big thing then and to think of every wall being a prospect was well appreciated then.
In the same lines - Can u think of any other product more valuable, in demand and holding maximum prospect than VEGETABLE? we know govts overturned due to prices of onions and others! So what do you think shud be the demand and market for this?
Sigh.sigh..
But have u ever thought of what the manufacturer of this unique and always-in-demand product undergoes?
I happened to visit Thalaivasal veg market last week to see or rather ‘study’. This is the 2nd largest (1st being ottanchathiram) vegetable market in Tamilnadu.
What a sight it is to see farmers – small, medium and big (resp in TVS50, 100cc bikes and autos) come with their produce/harvest. Poor guys will come with their produce that is the outcome of so much perspiration, planning and labour from minimum of a month to 9 months, without a clue about what they shall be paid. Unlike all the products in the open market that we see, for the farm products alone the manufacturer, the farmer, doesn’t fix the price.
Some middle man out there or some broker fixes the price. So it could be a ridiculous Rs 3per kg as I witnessed for Yam at thalaivasal on that day. Any guess how many days it takes for the farmer to harvest yam? 270 days!!! what do you think this three rupees shall serve?
So was the case for many vegetables. ( tomato-3, okra-7, pumpkin-4, radish-12, snakegourd- 4). If we do not value the farmer, his product and price them right whats the future of agriculture gonna be? The usual gyan of middle men stocking and scouting market, immediate payment to farmer etc doesn’t hold any logical or pragmatic answer.
Now, do u see the newspaper and give that lizard like sound on reading about farmer suicide? Hmm, what a shame. And in Europe I used to see farmers ply stylish BMV and its ilk and come to market in a plush pick up van and & go happily.
And here these people struggle so hard to make ends meet.
Ok, we saw a problem glorified and put forth. What can the solution be? Go seek for organic shops/ market like restore. Its bcos these are new and organic in all sense. So will not have middlemen and that vicious circle. Farmers shall be paid fair price unlike these well set stupid inorganic markets.