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Withering orchards

Killings of non-local truckers hits apple

trade hard, reports riyaz wani

he Kashmir mir village, in the midst The long distance these to rot and go bad along the
Valley produces of harvest season. Rasool apples have to travel is not a way to other markets in the
77 percent of faced formidable challenges problem; it is the transpor- country.
the country’s in picking, packing and tation hazards that apple The promise of the
T apples and earn transporting the produce to growers want protection authorities to procure re-
around 10,000 crore for markets outside the state. from. More so, during the frigerated vans for the safe
the state. This qualifies it as He found it difficult to trans- periods of unrest. The ex- transport of apples is yet to
the “backbone” of Kashmir’s port the produce even to traordinary situation materialise. Besides, there
economy. But lingering Kashmir’s own fruit market prevailing in the Valley fol- are no sufficient cold stor-
shutdown and communica- at Sopore. lowing revocation of Article age facilities that could have
tion blockade in the Valley “Lack of communica- 370 has taken a huge toll helped growers to not only
and the recent killings of tions has been the single on the horticulture, spread preserve apples for a longer
four non-local truckers and most impeding factor for across 1.87 lakh acres of time but also release it to
traders associated with the the apple farmers,” Rasool land and employing more the market when they got
trade has wrought havoc adds. “Though restoration than three million people a good price. Without these
with the industry. of postpaid mobile phones in the newly created Union facilities the apple farm-
It has raised the cost of has eased the situation a bit, Territory. ers are forced to sell their
sending apple to markets lack of internet remains a Also, apart from the produce immediately.
across the country. The problem.” political situation, the ap- Horticulture in Kash-
transport rates which other- Rasool showed his ple industry is done in by mir faces another massive
wise hovered around dissatisfaction with the re- the infrastructure bottle- challenge from a network
80 per apple box for the cently announced Govern- necks too. The inadequate of market functionaries
capital have now gone up ment Market Intervention infrastructure and lack of like pre-harvest contrac-
to around 200 and simi- Scheme whereby a state run proper transportation cause tors, commission agents
larly for states down south cooperative was charged to hundreds of kilos of apples and farmers, who exercise a
the rates have gone up from buy all the apple produce stranglehold on the market.
200 to around 400. An ap- at competitive prices. “This A survey carried out by the
ple box weighs 15-20 kg and isn’t working out,” he says. The transport National Bank for Agricul-
different varieties of rice “The cooperative is not rates, which ture and Rural Develop-
can fetch rates anywhere paying competitive prices ment (NABARD) in past had
between 500 to 1400. “This as claimed but far less than otherwise revealed that around 3,000
year things have been really that”. hovered around commission agents in Kash-
tough,” says Basharat Rasool, The Kashmir Valley is mir who mostly base them-
a grower. “A substantial por- linked to the rest of the 80 per apple selves in Delhi and utilise
tion of the apple has been country by Jhelum Valley the services of pre-harvest
wasted for want of buyers road. Difficult terrain and box that weighs contractors hold the farm-
and also transportation nature’s whims along this 15-20 kg for the ers captive through advance
outside the state”. road raise transportation funding and subsequently
Until middle of October, costs of the apples as they capital, have force them into distress sell-
thickly hanging apple trees make their way to the mar- now gone up to ing of their produce.
lay unpicked in his orchards kets of Delhi and other parts
in Budhan, a North Kash- of the country. around 200 LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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