Srinagar, Dec 10: The Centre attributes drop in prices of apple due to bumper harvest even as it said that there was no proposal under consideration of the J&K government regarding Market Intervention Scheme for the growers.
“As per information received from Jammu & Kashmir, the rates/prices are governed by many factors like supply and demand. This year, the apple crop is having a bumper harvest and due to warm weather, the marketing of fruit has been advanced by some days, as a result unregulated/more supply in the mandies caused a drop in the prices of apples,” Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar, told parliament in a written reply.
“The National Highway is under construction and on few occasions, the traffic gets halted which also has some impact on prices,” he said while replying to question by Binoy Viswam, member Rajya Sabha from Communist Party of India, who sought to know whether Government was aware of the drop in apple prices in Kashmir due to disruption in movement and lack of cold storages.
Regarding another question by the MP regarding the number of cold storage facilities constructed by Government in Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370, the minister replied, “Post the abrogation of Article 370, twenty one Cold Storages with capacity of 99,555 MT have been constructed in the UT.”
Asked about the reasons for the frequent halting of apple-laden trucks leaving Kashmir for different parts of the country on the arterial Srinagar-Jammu Highway, the Minister said: “National Highway gets damaged or broken due to natural calamities, hence it is repaired from time to time due to which the traffic gets halted.”
The MP lastly sought the reasons for not implementing a Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) to help Kashmir’s apple growers and the minister replied: “Government of Jammu & Kashmir reported that no proposal is under consideration of the Government.”
