THE concept of Rythu Bazars in which the farmers directly sell their vegetables, grain, fruit and even eggs to consumers is impressive. It has eliminated middlemen and brought financial benefit directly to the farmers, encouraging many of the poorer and smaller farmers to switch over from agriculture cultivation to growing vegetables. And for this, both, the farmers and citizens of Vizag have Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to be thankful to.

S. J. C. Sastri, an estate officer of the Andhra government�s agriculture and marketing department, and the man in charge of the M.V.P. Colony�s Rythu Bazar, explained the concept.

�This bazar was opened by Naidu on June 2, 2000, and already it is the biggest in Vizag and the No. 1 in all of Andhra Pradesh for the way it has been maintained and for the quality of the food items that are sold here,� he said.

�There are 12 Rythu Bazars in Vizag that are run by the government. And only farmers are allowed to be the vegetable vendors in them. Lots are drawn at every bazar on Monday for the allotment of stalls. And this is done in absolute transparency by the city�s assistant director of marketing.

Each farmer is given a stall at a Rythu Bazar free of cost that is his for the week. So, in this system of rotation, every farmer gets his chance once a month to sell what he is growing. It is a very good and honest system,� said Sastri.

The farmers come from 26 villages in and around Vizag city and the 12 Rythu Bazars are sufficient for them to do their business from. The bazars open at 5.30 in the morning and they are run until noon. Again in the evening, the bazars are kept open between 4 and 8. The Rythu Bazar is a very self-sufficient place. If a farmer has a product that needs cold storage refrigeration during his week at a bazar, he can keep it in the bazar�s �O� Energy Cool Chamber: a large thatched hut with brick walls that are regularly doused with ice water. The estate manager�s office even allows the farmers to receive phone calls from their villages. When the call comes, the estate manager calls the farmer to his office over an efficient public address system.

�There is no question of a customer getting cheated at the Rythu Bazar,� said Sastri, �because the rates of every vegetable, fruit and grain and packaged stuffs are fixed beforehand and put up on a big notice board for everybody to see and be aware of. These rates are fixed every day by a market committee in consultation with the farmers and are done to everybody�s satisfaction.� And it is true, the farmers in the Rythu Bazars are a happy lot of vegetable vendors. The bazars are efficiently run and their produce is checked before being allowed to go up for sale.

The Andhra Pradesh government, in its kindness, has also allowed tribal farmers to come and sell their produce at the Rythu Bazars. A separate section is allotted to them. Their vegetables are organically grown. And the tribal farmers are given further subsidies and incentives to help them eventually enter the mainstream. Another little facility is a stall set up by the Andhra Bank that exchanges small packets of coins for 100-rupee notes with the farmers. �There is always a shortage of coins and it is nice to have the bank offering this service to the farmers,� said Sastri.