𝑹𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝑪𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑨𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒑 𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒊𝒕𝒔

𝘈𝘍𝘍𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘪 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘙𝘴 60/𝘬𝘨

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 utilising controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, whereby small growers are unable to store their produce and sell it when circumstances are favourable. We see a deliberate act by the administration to benefit CA companies which rent out their spaces to agribusinesses who can easily bear the high costs associated with cold storage. In this way, apple growers are being pushed away from marketing their own produce.

The end result is that big agribusiness – 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 7 lakh households and contribute 8% to the region’s domestic GDP.

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. We firmly demand that the J&K administration remove all hindrances to the movement of apple trucks immediately and compensate growers for the losses incurred by them.

AFFI 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.

Sd/-

Sohan Singh Thakur

Himachal Pradesh AFFI

Abdul Rashid J&K AFFI