Militants’ writ, of late, may have not been of any substance whatsoever in the valley on account of strict security measures taken by the Government and increasingly waning public sympathy or support if any in certain pockets, but their activities definitely resulted in damaging the prospects of smooth harvesting of apples, their transportation and marketing. Perhaps , the unjustified , uncalled for andmischievous ire of the militants in the valley acting at the behest of the belligerent neighbour reached at the gates of the apple merchants only , they gave a boycott call for not harvesting or doing anything further with the standing apple crops and even resorted to cowardly killings of a few traders and poor truck drivers, in particular those from outside the valley. That resulted in a unique type of crisis. We can contemptuously call it terrorism against apple crop, harvesting and marketing though it was duly resisted by the public as well as by the Government.
Whatever the reasons , the Union Government managed to intervene and it was decided to buy apples right at the doors of the farmers and traders by introducing the ‘Market Intervention Scheme’. That really made a dent though that scheme passed successfully yet faced some tribulations . Since transporters from outside the valley showed reluctance post killing incidents of some drivers hailing from other parts of the country by militants, the shortage of vehicles to transport the produce has been felt and the available truckers have revised the transportation charges which per box of graded and packed apples is felt to be on the higher side. The other problem faced by the apple traders is that of the exercise of gradation which most of the growers feel is not being done honestly and thus due expected remuneration of their apples is in doldrums .
In this sort of a confusion of various hues and added to that, the chilly weather including wet and snowy conditions being totally not conducive for the apples, most of which are packed in boxes but awaiting transportation which further is affected by the reasons above enumerated need proper resolution. Has National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) really stopped further procurement of apples at the famous Shopian fruit market thus leaving to utter chances, the unsold crop and thus made it susceptible to the vagaries of weather, there are different views. Whatever the reasons, the immediate policy of all Governmental agencies should be to arrange lifting of the produce from the fields , fruit markets where packed boxes are lying and at other places at an early date as any further delay was tantamount to wreaking a severe blow to the harvested crop known for its fragility . A whooping number of 90,000 boxes of apples are reported to be still sorted and graded . When shall that exercise start especially when there have been rains and snowfall comparatively slightly prematurely in the Valley and the fate of the bulk of apples awaiting transportation is uncertain and unspecified. Some urgent measures are required to save the growers from their crop yielding lesser or even no proceeds .
Speculations are continuing to abound at fruit markets that an imminent loss in returns from the sale of apples was fated because large quantity of apples which by now should have reached all the traditional mandis of the country are stilllying in fruit markets or open fields and were bound to perish and hence being rendered loss making entities. We urge the concerned authorities including the NAFED to make arrangements for gradation and transportation of apples and also proceed ahead with negotiating with the transporters for settling transportation charges so that the problems faced by the apple traders in Kashmir were resolved. Also, since the procurement scheme was valid up to 15th of the current month only , the same may be extended till the last day of this year or the full procurement date whichever was later.
