Blocking apples on road, a game plan by JK admin to benefit corporate giants: Apple Growers

The Apple Farmers' Federation of India (AFFI) strongly protests the anti-farmer stand of the Kashmir administration that is facilitating the designs of large agri-business corporate houses to create an artificial shortage in the fruit market across the country.

Srinagar (J&K):The Apple Farmers' Federation of India (AFFI) strongly protests the anti-farmer stand of the Kashmir administration that is facilitating the designs of large agri-business corporate houses to create an artificial shortage in the fruit market across the country, soar prices in the consumer market, and reap windfall profit while depressing the procurement price during the harvesting season, and thus looting the apple growers.

The unwarranted blockades on the National Highway of trucks carrying apples to the mainland for the last many weeks are part of this design. As per the reports, it is estimated that till September 28, more than 5,000 trucks carrying an average of 20 tonnes of apples each are standing still on the national highway stretching 40 km from Mirbazar in Anantnag to Banihal tunnel.

The highway blockage is connected with the high costs of utilizing controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, whereby small growers are unable to store their products and sell them when circumstances are favorable. A deliberate act is seen by the administration to benefit corporate companies that rent out their spaces to agri-businesses who can easily bear the high costs associated with cold storage. In this way, apple growers are being pushed away from marketing their own products.

The end result is that big agri-business owned by Adani, Reliance, etc., dominate the market and sell apples at exorbitant rates of Rs 300/kg and more, whereas apple growers are forced to distress sales at the rates of Rs 30/kg or less. Thus, the farmers are suffering huge losses while unprecedented price rises rob consumers across the country.

Once again, the pro-corporate character of the J&K administration under Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, which the Union government controls, working hand in glove with the agri-business corporate houses, is exposed. The blockages also reveal the administration's cruel designs to destroy the economic strength of Kashmir's apple growers, which employ seven lakh households and contribute eight percent to the region's domestic GDP, said the federation members.

AFFI extends solidarity to spontaneous protests taking place in fruit Mandis in the Kashmir valley. AFFI had actively participated in the apple farmers' struggle in Himachal Pradesh. The federation firmly demands that the J&K administration remove all hindrances to the movement of apple trucks immediately and compensate growers for the losses incurred by them.

It further demands the Modi government to intervene immediately and take strong action against those agri-business houses creating an artificial shortage and soar the apple prices and ensure the procurement price for the apple farmers never go below Rs 60/kg.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ramban Mussarat Islam along with SSP Ramban Mohita Sharma on Wednesday visited Banihal town to resolve the issues of traffic congestion on the National Highway besides listening to the grievances of the locals at their doorstep.