Stressed sector
Kashmir valley has been largely dependent on its agricultural produce, mainly fruits. The revenue generated through this sector has been acting as a major cushion for the economy of the region. The fruits produced here not only bring cash revenues but also keep a large chunk of population involved in the sector for the entire year.
However, past several years have seen a severe decline in the revenues for the horticulture sector. This decline has not been due to low produce or poor quality of the product, but majorly all the reasons have been manmade. The circumstances were such that the produce could not reach its destination or end users.
Presently, cherry fruit which is also one of the most sought after product from Kashmir has been witnessing a severe decline in its revenues. Cherry which is a highly perishable commodity has not been able to reach the markets outside Jammu and Kashmir and such the produce has not fetched any revenues for the growers.
Last year or even prior to that a cherry box weighing around 1200 grams would actually fetch a cost of 165 Rupees for the grower and after calculating the costs involved a grower would make around 100 Rupees as profit for every box. But this year whatever produce was sold each box did not fetch a revenue of more than 60 rupees for the grower, thus ensuring that the grower faces serious loses for his produce.
The situation reached to a point that in south Kashmir where a maximum area is under cherry cultivation, growers thought it better to leave the produce to rot as they did not bother to pluck the cherries which is a labour intensive activity.
Apart from cherries, the growers could not fetch descent returns for the apple produce as well. This year the apple produce ended up going waste as the lockdown during the period of March onwards meant that all the fruit stored in cold stores across the valley did not make it to mandies in Delhi and elsewhere.
The cherry produce also ended up making loses as the lack of transport facility did not make it feasible for the growers to send their produce outside. This phenomenon has been hitting the horticulture sector for many years now. Therefore, the need for enabling a dedicated transportation mechanism needs to be put in place to secure the growers from suffering loses owing to this lacuna.
What is more ironic is that the government too has not been acting with concern over the demands of growers to keep a dedicated road available for them to send their produce to outside states.
The growers have been now for long demanding that the Mughal road be kept dedicated for transporting the fruit produced in the valley to various markets outside. But this demand has not been fulfilled since many years now.
No doubt the Mughal road is not fully motorable for the entire year but ensuring this road for transporting fruits would have eased the worries of the growers and let them flourish and strengthen the economy of the region.
KV Network
