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| Neglected fruit industry craves for Govt attention | | | Majid Ahmad
Srinagar, Sept 25: Once valley's biggest source of income, the apple industry is dying a slow death with both investment and infrastructure registering a distinct decline. The fruit industry in Kashmir has been the worst victim of the government apathy that has been remarkable in most areas of performance in the last five years.
While the annual turnover of fruit business is in thousands of crores and it provides direct or indirect employment to a few lakh people, the government has failed to live to its promise of upgrading the infrastructure for fruit industry.
The fruit growers main grudge is that government has failed to provide basic infrastructure for the industry. "Development of the apple industry is a political issue here. The government invests only in those areas where it thinks it would get votes. That is why the apple town Sopur and Shopian where people have had distanced themselves from vote politics, are being neglected," Ghulam Ahmad Mir, a fruit grower from Sopore area told Early Times.
He said that like Tourism, Horticulture has tremendous potential in the state and it concerns 70 percent of population directly. "But it's being neglected," he says.
Quoting many examples, Mir said, "Substandard pesticides are ruining the fruit but the agencies concerned are not taking any note of it. Growers are in dilemma which is genuine drug and which not."
His concerns were echoed by Bashir Ahmad, another grower from South Kashmir's Shopian area.
He says that government has to be strict against those who sell substandard pesticides to the growers. "The issue is far serious and has to be seriously dealt with. They can't ruin our business and get away with it. The substandard pesticides should not be seen as a scandal but as a conspiracy against the state," Ahmad said.
He argues that whenever farmers complain that drug has negative affect on fruit they complain it with the department concerned and the department takes sample for the test. But the findings never come to fore.
According to industry figures, more than 400,000 tonnes of apples are ruined by the scab every year. Muneer Ahmad, a fruit dealer says Kashmiri apples face tough competition in outside state markets and the "quality of our fruit gets affected due to the lack of storage facilities and the long rigorous journey."
"The government is not showing any concern about our problems and no effective measures are taken to safeguard the interests of the fruit industry. Our state doesn't have a full fledged horticulture industry. Research work is conducted at the snail's pace," he added.
However, government officials have their own explanation for the dire state of the industry. They say the lack of a grading system has affected the quality of the Kashmir apple.
"India currently levies heavy duties on apple imports from other countries, and if these are removed, Kashmir apples can face tough competition. We have to be prepared for competition," they added. |
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