Udupi: “People from the city who are unaware of farming cannot elucidate about it”, said Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake during the awareness workshop for the pepper growing farmers here at Perdur on December 26.

After inaugurating the workshop,  the minister said that to understand the real problem of farmers, one should go to them and find out their grievances. Sugar cane farmers even after having a strong union are not successful in standing up for their rights. He assured their problems will be highlighted in the assembly sessions.

“Farmers in rural areas go unnoticed; they have been always exploited by the middle man. The main issue faced by the farmer is that they do not get to decide the market price – for their own crops. They have least knowledge about direct selling and marketing tactics”.

He said farmers should follow mixed farming, Sorake gave examples stating farmers can grow Paddy  along with banana plantation, cocoa and pepper which would be profitable in the long run. This will balance the profits.

Technical help should also be extended to the farmers. He directed the officials to ensure the facilities of government sponsored schemes to the farmers without delay. He added measures would be taken to overcome the problems of shortage of staff in the horticulture department.