Earthquake hits J&K apple business

The earthquake that hit J&K on Saturday has put the livelihood of fruit growers in jeopardy. Apples have become the chief casualty of nature's most recent disaster.

"This year we had a great crop after about eight years," said G R Bhat, president of the Jammu and Kashmir Fruit Growers and Traders Association. Bhat said apple orchards had suffered 25 per cent damage.

"I was in one of the orchards in Baramulla when the earthquake struck. All of a sudden apples started falling as if stones were being pelted," he said.

However, Agriculture Minister A A Zargar said the damage to the apple orchards was only about 7 per cent. "The 25 per cent damage seems to be exaggerated. Nonetheless, we have directed the the horticulture department to immediately assess the loss to the (apple) orchards," he said.

Zargar said whatever be the damage, it would be compensated through the recently-launched state government's market intervention scheme (MIS).

According to earlier reports, Kashmiri apples were to get access to new markets like Pakistan and other central Asian countries, with members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council joining apple growers in asking for facilitating the export of the Kashmiri fruit along the recently re-opened Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road.

"This House resolves that the central government be approached to take concrete steps for exportation of all kinds of fruits to neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran via recently opened Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road and also to such other countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Russia," read the resolution unanimously passed by the Upper House of J&K Legislature.

Farmers say that nearly 25 per cent of apple produce was destroyed in Saturday's quake which "shook the earth, bringing everything down".

The state government had sent a proposal to the central government for setting up a truck terminal, cold storage facilities and other amenities for the traders near the Kaman Post ""the last military point on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road on the Indian side of Kashmir.

The state government has allocated Rs 4 crore and kept the money with the horticulture department as support price for procurement fruit under the market intervention scheme. The amount will be spent to procure a targeted quantity of 20,000 and 22,000 metric tonnes of C-grade apples at Rs 4 a kg in 2005-06.

The worst-hit northern districts of Kashmir, Baramulla and Kupwara, are also the highest apple-producing areas in the country. About 60 per cent of Kashmir's apples are produced in Sopore and its suburbs.

Apple is the mainstay of Kashmir's economy with a turnover of Rs 1400 crore a year and its production in the state has reached about 1.2 million metric tonnes annually. It also employs nearly 600,000 people and contributes about 10 per cent to state domestic product (SDP).

About 800,000 tonnes of apples are sent to various markets in the country.