Land pooling takes toll on food basket of CRDA villages

• CRDA officials are not allowing farmers to take up any cultivation
• Vendors from these villages are now procuring fruits & vegetables from city market

We used to see vehicles carrying vegetables and leafy vegetables from these villages moving to Vijayawada city every day. But, now, we see the vehicles from Vijayawada coming to our villages to supply vegetables

Amaravati: The 29 villages of the capital city, Amaravati, which have been the core suppliers of fruits and vegetables for Vijayawada, are now looking at the city for their needs. The city now supplies them fruits and vegetables, including the leafy vegetables for their daily needs.

The vendors and mobile merchants, who have been procuring their products for sale from these villages all these years, are now trekking all the way to the city market to get the vegetables and sell them in these villages. The venders buy vegetables and fruits from the Kaleswararao Market in the city in the morning and sell them in the villages, something that was never expected by them.

The fertile lands, which have been producing the vegetables and fruits all these years, are kept dry as the government had taken the lands for the capital construction. The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) officials are not allowing the farmers to take up any cultivation here leaving the lands empty. This had left the people here to depend on Vijayawada city for fruits and vegetables.

Mikkili Raju, a vendor from Thallayapalem hamlet, who sells vegetables at Mandadam, used to depend on local traders to supply vegetables for his small shop located at the main center of the village. He said that the traders who used to procure vegetables from the local farmers, were now procuring them from the wholesale market in Vijayawada.

“We used to see vehicles carrying vegetables and leafy vegetables from these villages moving to Vijayawada city every day. But, today, we see the vehicles from Vijayawada coming to our villages to supply vegetables,” he added. Raju faces stiff competition from two more vendors in the village to sell the vegetables.

It is not just vegetables that are supplied to these villages from Vijayawada. The fruits, mostly banana, are also supplied from the city. Songala Sambaiah, a banana vendor from Mandadam village goes around the villages selling banana every day.

He used to procure five to six fruit bunches from Venkatapalem, Mandadam and Rayapudi villages earlier and sell them in Vijayawada, mostly in the One Town area. Today, he procures the fruit bunches from Undavalli and Penumaka villages which have not given the lands to the government in pooling.

“The bananas have disappeared from Mandadam, Venkatapalem and Rayapudi villages now. They might disappear from Undavalli and Penumaka villages too shortly and we may have to depend on the city,” he lamented.

Sambaiah has a couple of competitors who also sell bananas daily travelling a few kilometers from their village. They buy a fruit bunch for Rs 80 to Rs 150 and sell a dozen at Rs 25 to Rs 30 as they go around. Each fruit bunch contains 12 to 15 dozens of fruits giving him his daily wage after meeting the petrol charges for his moped.

Bananas and vegetables were cultivated in over 5,300 acres in Mandadam, 1,500 acres in Venkatapalem, 700 acres in Malkapuram, 1,200 acres in Velagapudi, 1,000 acres in Lingayapalem, 700 acres in Uddhandarayunipalem, 2,000 acres in Penumaka, 1,700 acres in Undavalli villages.

But for the 3,700 acres in both Penumaka and Undavalli villages which are not given to the government in pooling, the cultivation is stopped totally. These villages too would have to give their lands to the government as the capital activity is set to start in the area from June this year with the temporary capital coming up in Velagapudi village and the master plan for Amaravati is ready now.