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Kashmir apple trade seeks industry status
India
Sunday 23 September 2007
Orchards in Kashmir Valley - once known as the fruit bowl of India - are full of fragrant apples but growers fear another disastrous year of business in the wake of what many say is government apathy.
Farmers across the valley, currently busy harvesting the fruit to be shipped to markets outside the state, accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard the declining horticulture sector.
'Kashmir fruit business, despite being one of the prime revenue earners, has never got the desired attention from the government,' Abdur Rasheed, a fruit grower in Shopian, about 50 km from Srinagar, complained to IANS.
Like Rasheed, most of the fruit farmers complain of the government's alleged failure to accord to the fruit business an industry status.
'By granting the status of an industry to the fruit business, we could be entitled to financial and other subsidy benefits,' Rasheed said.
Over three million people are directly or indirectly associated with this trade said Mubeen Shah, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), who wanted the government to take extra measures to save the industry from further deterioration.
According to the state's horticulture department, around 1.5 million tons of apples are produced in Kashmir annually.
However, according to estimates, also over 500,000 tons of apples are ruined every year in the valley. There are many reasons for this. Diseases like scab infection, alternaria, red-might and powdery mildew are spoiling the crop and growers are unable to do much to stem the rot.
Farmers across the valley, currently busy harvesting the fruit to be shipped to markets outside the state, accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard the declining horticulture sector.
'Kashmir fruit business, despite being one of the prime revenue earners, has never got the desired attention from the government,' Abdur Rasheed, a fruit grower in Shopian, about 50 km from Srinagar, complained to IANS.
Like Rasheed, most of the fruit farmers complain of the government's alleged failure to accord to the fruit business an industry status.
'By granting the status of an industry to the fruit business, we could be entitled to financial and other subsidy benefits,' Rasheed said.
Over three million people are directly or indirectly associated with this trade said Mubeen Shah, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), who wanted the government to take extra measures to save the industry from further deterioration.
According to the state's horticulture department, around 1.5 million tons of apples are produced in Kashmir annually.
However, according to estimates, also over 500,000 tons of apples are ruined every year in the valley. There are many reasons for this. Diseases like scab infection, alternaria, red-might and powdery mildew are spoiling the crop and growers are unable to do much to stem the rot.
