Kashmir scales a new high in fruit output

The Kashmir valley has registered a record production of 12.74 lakh metric tonnes of fruits. The annual revenue has touched Rs 2000 crore.

According to the sources in Jammu and Kashmir's horticulture department, this was achieved through an application of scientific inputs. The annual revenue of Rs 2,000 crore includes Rs 200 crore from dry fruits and Rs 120 crore from the export of walnuts.

Disease-control measures initiated by the state in the recent past have been fruitful for the fruit industry. The scab disease had affected just 2.62 per cent of the production in the valley so far in the current year, an official source added.

This became possible through curbing the use of spurious and sub-standard pesticides and fertilisers, a senior officer in the Kashmir wing of the horticulture department said.

He added, of 156 pesticide samples drawn from various dealers in the Kashmir division so far in the current year, 92 samples have been declared satisfactory and five misbranded. The results of the remaining 59 are awaited.

The officer said chemicals whose dates of expiry were past had been confiscated from some suppliers by the enforcement agency of Srinagar, and the suppliers were turned in for prosecution. In addition, some pesticide samples have been declared misbranded as per the results received from the relevant laboratories.

Stressing the vast scope and potential in horticulture, a source said that 100,000 hectares of land had been identified as the potential area suited for horizontal horticulture expansion, in addition to the consolidation of the existing orchards. At present, about 162,028 hectares are under horticulture, including 56,745 hectares under dry fruit cultivation.

The state government has identified some focus areas for promoting horticulture, which provides livelihood to about 25 lakh people directly and indirectly, in the state.

These include area expansion under different fruits; building water storage tanks, deep bore wells and shallow wells; establishing fruit plant nurseries; enforcing quality-control measures and pesticides analysis laboratories; establishing tissue culture laboratories; introducing germ plasm technology, protection cultivation, value addition, chain/cold storage; and diversifying marketing strategies.

In addition, 17 subsidiary fruit markets are being set up in various fruit-producing areas of the state. Also, the government has introduced a novel market intervention scheme (MIS) for segregating C-grade fruits from A- and B-grade ones, to ensure quality stuff is exported.

A sum of Rs 14 crore has been earmarked for the current fruit season with the target of procuring 50,000 metric tonnes directly from the growers. The Jammu division has also been covered under the MIS this year.