Bhubaneswar, July 9: The price of eating healthy will no longer make you turn a sickly shade of green. Here’s a chance to snub the neighbourhood vegetable vendor and turn to new Udyan Fresh outlets for cheaper and garden fresh local veggies.

The state horticulture directorate has decided to set up 11 Udyan Fresh vegetable kiosks in the city to help you pay less while also ensuring that farmers on the outskirts of the city get a fair price for the vegetables they grow.

Government will provide land to private partners to set up the outlets that will be managed in public private partnership mode. The private players will ensure proper storage and marketing of the veggies while the directorate of horticulture will fix the prices of the produce.

The prices of the vegetables at these outlets will be low compared to those you buy at local vegetable markets because middlemen in the supply chain will be eliminated. Four of these kiosks are already being built near the Regional Institute of Education, Chandrasekharpur, CRPF Square and Unit-I Market in the first phase of the project. Surendra Agritech Pvt Ltd has been chosen as the private partner for the first phase.

The private partner will set up aggregation points for farmers registered with the horticulture department to collect vegetables and ferry the stock to the market in cold vans and also set up cold storage units for the vegetables.

Sources said there were as many as 6,000 registered farmers within a 50-kilometer radius of Bhubaneswar, and they would supply the vegetables to the private concern. These farmers have formed 300 registered farmer groups. Weighing machines will be installed at various aggregation points to weigh the produce.

Sources in the directorate of horticulture said Surendra Agritech had already procured cold storage vans and had also set up a cold storage unit on the outskirts of the city.

Consumers will also be able to buy these vegetables from mobile carts, which will be kept near kiosks of the Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (Omfed).

By the time vegetables grown in farms on the outskirts of the city reach your neighbourhood vegetable vendor, the price has nearly doubled because of the involvement of middlemen. For example, if a trader buys a particular vegetable for Rs 15 per kilo from a farmer, by the time it reaches your local market, the price will have become Rs 30 because middlemen are involved in procurement and marketing.

But in the case of Udyan Fresh, farmers will get a fair price and consumers will get fresher veggies at a cheaper rate. The way the project has been planned will also ensure that the vegetables are stored properly.

“This will benefit both farmers and consumers. The project will be done on a pilot basis in Bhubaneswar and if it succeeds, it will be duplicated in other parts of the state as well,” said director of horticulture Sanjeev Chada.

Farmers have expressed satisfaction with the new initiative of the state government.

“We get less amount for our product because of lack of proper storing facilities. The consumers too buy vegetables at much higher prices, as middlemen are involved. But with this new plan, both farmers and consumers will be benefited,” said Lingaraj Samal, a vegetable farmer at Baranga on the outskirts of the city.

Sources at the state directorate of horticulture said the city consumes nearly 380 metric tonnes of vegetables every day.