TATES in the entire alpine belt of India from Jammu and Kashmir through Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Arunachal Pradesh have been classified by the Planning Commission as special category states. It is another expression for their relative backwardness. This is despite the fact that all these states have two potential money spinning sectors of tourism and horticulture, which includes vegetables and floriculture. While we may leave aside tourism for the present, there is no denying the fact that the prosperity of even the ordinary man in this belt turns upon horticulture. The most important fruit in this is apple. Of the total estimated production of apple in India at 12 lakh tonnes, Jammu and Kashmir accounts for 7 lakh tonnes, while Himachal Pradesh accounts for 3 lakh tonnes.Even this potential has not been fully realised for reasons that are both man-made and those resulting from the caprice of the weather gods. While there is no protection against droughts, floods and untimely rains, man-made causes need to be addressed earnestly in the difficult perspective of free international trade under the W.T.O. As against India’s 12 lakh tonnes of apple, China produces 200 lakh tonnes. Even surpassing that is
Washington (USA) which produces 240 lakh tonnes of apple per annum. The apple crop of the USA as a whole in the record year of 1994 has been around 540 lakh tonnes. We are not reckoning the output of New Zealand, Australia, France and Italy but the apple of some of these countries has hit the Indian market at Bangalore and even Chandigarh.
Qualitatively these apples are distinctly superior in taste, flavour, and uniformity in size and attractiveness in colour and above all in their shelf life.
In the present disturbed conditions of Kashmir, full exploitation of the domestic markets may present difficulties. However, even when conditions were peaceful, not much attention seems to have been paid to getting higher returns through superior and imaginative marketing.
However, there is no excuse for Himachal Pradesh the next important apple-growing state to neglect this sector. It is high time it explored how best it could plan for the betterment of its apple growers. Both in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, one characteristic of the apple sector is that the ownership of orchards is widely diffused and, therefore, the small orchard owner is not at the mercy of the large grower.
It is true that in the past three years, there has been an alternation between severe drought and heavy floods, resulting in a sharp decline in the apple yield and even where the harvest is good blocking of communication on account of floods.
It is within this constraint that there is need for a close look at how better marketing could be organised in the context of Himachal Pradesh so as to strengthen its economy against the WTO perspective. For many years, both the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh were not able to put across to the farmers the prospects of increased return per carton packed apple. Apple packed in wooden boxes without the use of apple trays resulted in damage to the fruit during transit. It has taken the farmers a long time to realise that tray-packed cartons help, in reducing the bruising to the fruit form the traditional 33 per cent in the wooden boxes to 3 to 4 per cent in the carton tray boxes. This mode of packaging also helps in providing a better presentation, avoid pilferage and therefore, increase buyer’s reference since the number of fruits per carton is fixed. All this has resulted in the carton tray pack commanding a premium of Rs 50 to Rs 70 per pack. Now that the farmers have understood the distinct advantage of marketing of apple in carton as distinguished from wooden boxes, one major step has been achieved though the fact remains that for want of adequate number of cartons inferior wooden boxes continue to be used to the extent of 50 per cent of the harvest even when it is an obviously uneconomical way of marketing. It is high time, therefore, that the entire capacity created through the World Bank assistance for the production of cartons is utilised by producing those cartons. The capacity created under the World Bank assistance can take care of the entire apple crop of Himachal Pradesh and to an extent Kashmir also. This would not only fetch higher returns to the farmers but also achieve economies of scale bringing down the cost of production per carton substantially. The current capacity utilisation ranges from 40 to 50 per cent. It would, thus, save a wholly avoidable subsidy or Rs 10 per carton and Rs 7.50 crore on subsidy for carton. It would also save the freight subsidy on wooden boxes.
The higher keeping quality of the foreign apple results from following a system based production and marketing. Refrigerator apples are now being brought at the doorstep of the market and naturally have a longer keeping quality.
In the
context of Himachal apple marketing, there is a heavy dependence on routing a substantial part of the harvest through the Delhi fruit market, which cuts into the margin of Himachal farmers. It is no that the HPMC does not have outlets outside Delhi. But a politicised/centralised decision-making and the manning of these jobs by those not oriented to modern marketing techniques has aborted efforts towards direct marketing.
Even as regards mother nature, the situation is not that helpless. Himachal with its potential for hydel projects has no excuse not to be able to supply power for sprinklers and drip irrigation. This would considerably insure against drought. There is much else that can be gained if production and marketing management are system oriented in the apple sector in particular and
horticulture as a whole. Unfortunately, the response so far has been to blame the unequal nature of the WTO agreement. Separately this issue can be
persuaded for rectification. Even so, there is no escape whatever from, the government discharging its responsibilities to strengthen the apple production and marketing system so as to acquire greater stamina to compete against international competition. Let us hope that those in responsible positions will take wake up to the exacting demands of a globalised context. Otherwise, Himachal apples are foredoomed to the blight of international competition.
