State’s Rs 4,500-cr apple economy in doldrums
Kuldeep Chauhan
Marred by erratic weather and climate change, Himachal’s Rs 4,500-crore apple economy is in doldrums.
Fresh duty-free imported apple coming from the US, China, Australia and New Zealand under free trade treaty is likely to be wrapped up by the end of this year by India and apple farmers fear that it will prove the proverbial last nail in the coffin of sagging apple industry.
To save the apple industry from imminent disaster, farmers want incentives on inputs such as fungicides and nutrients to increase production, productivity and the quality of apple and an increase on import duties on foreign apples to 75 per cent. “This can be done by bringing apple in the list of special category items, considering that Himachal is a special category state in the country, where apple is the mainstay of economy for farmers in Shimla, Kullu, Chamba, Mandi and tribals of Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti,” farmers said.
Like every year, untimely rain, windstorms and hailstorms destroyed not only the apple crop in the second week of April, when apple orchards were in full bloom, but peas, cabbage, cauliflower as well in the region that ruined the economy of farmers.
Apple production has fallen over the years due to weather playing havoc with cash crops. This year also is going to be no better than last year’s crop, which was one of the lowest in the state since 1990s.
“The per capita land holding of farmers on an average have shrunk to 3 bighas that has made horticultural unsustainable for small and marginal farmers,” said Rakesh Singha, Thoeg legislator and president of HP Seb Udpadak Sangh.
“No compensation has been paid to farmers by the government for crop loss. It has not included hailstorms and windstorms under crop insurance scheme, which amounts to an open loot of farmers under the nose of government departments. The government is giving a free hand to crop insurance companies to mint money from farmers, who are reeling under crisis,” he said.
Singha said banks are debiting money from the accounts of farmers, who have availed Kisan credit cards without their consent and are crediting the same into the bank accounts of insurance companies. The insurance companies do not pay farmers a penny for compensation for loss due to hailstorms, he said.
Farmers have demanded a judicial inquiry into crop insurance scam, but the state government was shielding companies and exploitation of farmers goes unabated in the state, Singha said.
“Farmers are not getting latest virus-free certified varieties of rootstocks from certified nurseries under the Rs 1,145 crore project and nothing has been done to provide assured irrigation and incentives on inputs as cost of production has gone up from Rs 600 to Rs 700 per carton due to the high cost of labour, inputs including pesticides and fungicides, infrastructure for installing anti-hail nets,” added Dinesh Thakur, a farmer.
Government inspires little
Farmers said more than 50 per cent of the apple rootstock plants imported from Italy and other countries under the project over the years, has dried up. Farmers are not getting certified plant materials though the Horticulture Department promised that it would give them latest plants as per their demand in 2019-20. Singha said insurance companies have not set up enough weather stations in the main apple producing districts of Shimla, Kinnaur, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba, Lahaul-Spiti and parts of Sirmaur and Solan districts. Even farmers of Lahaul-Spiti did not get a penny under the crop insurance for over 90 per cent losses they suffered on September 23-25 in 2018 due to heavy snowfall as the insurance cover period expired on July 31. Farmers demanded extension in the covering period of the crop insurance scheme from July 31 to September 31, but the state government did not pay any heed.
SIT fails to probe
Farmers have not got their payment for the fruit they have sold to arhtiyas over the years. The pending payments run in over Rs 100 crore, but neither APMC nor the agricultural market board, which run the markets, have failed to bring the arhtiyas to book, farmers said. Secretary, Kisan Sangharh Samiti, Sanjay Chauhan said: “DGP Sita Ram Mardi had constituted a five-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by the additional superintendent of police, CID (crime), Virender Kalia, to probe all cases against commission agents and traders to bring arhtiyas to book in May 4, but the SIT has done nothing in the last 16 days. DGP’s order came after the HP High Court directed the state government to constitute SIT to bring erring arhtiyas or apple traders, who had not paid farmers their dues, to book. “SIT would complete investigation in three months, but there has been no progress on this,” Chauhan said, adding: “BJP government’s claim of doubling farmers’ income by 2022 sounds hollow, as nothing substantial has happened on the ground in the past one year.”
WHAT FARMERS WANT
- Stop import of foreign apple: Disaster is imminent as duty-free import from the US, China, and other countries will push local apple out from markets. The import of foreign apple cut down the profit margins of apple farmers by Rs 500 per carton last year, when the import duty was 50 per cent. If the import is duty-free, apple farmers will be ruined, famers said.
- Increase import duties on apple: Farmers said India should increase import duties on apple and exclude apple from the free trade agreement it has signed with nine other ASEAN nations — China, Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, whose production per acre is highest in the world.
...AND WHAT THEY FEAR
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECEP) nations further want to create free trade zone with zero import duties on trade with ASEAN, including India, at the end of this year that will spell doom for the apple industry of the state. The apple imported without duties from China, New Zealand and Australia and from the US under WTO regime will push domestic apple produced in Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand to the brink with flooding of cheaper foreign apples, farmers feared. Harish Chauhan, president, HP Fal Sabji aur Phool Udpadak Sangh, a right-wing body, said: “The vagaries of weather are playing havoc with crop every year. Nothing much has been done under the Rs 1,134 horticulture product to address the issues that plague apple farmers and nothing has been done to upgrade Parala Mandi and others. e-NAM Mandi, an online trading platform for agricultural commodities, has turned out to be an eyewash.” Chauhan said it appeared that the focus of the Horticulture Department had now shifted to the Rs 6,880 crore subtropical horticulture project, in which lower areas of Shimla district should have been included. The government agencies have done precious little to book the arhtiyas for not paying dues worth crores of rupees to farmers as the special investigation team was yet to start probe in the case. “Now, we are holding meetings with the Deputy Commissioner to make stringent rules to check fleecing and cheating of farmers. The arhtiyas should give a minimum bank guarantee of Rs 50 lakh, which can be forfeited in case dues of farmers are not paid. Buyers will be registered to check their fleecing after they buy the fruit,” he said.
High density orchard a solution?
Raising new orchards in place of old ones has become very difficult due to re-plantation disease. The productivity remains low with farmers not producing more than 7 metric tonnes per hectare as compared with 200 MT produced in New Zealand, where apple industry is mechanised, irrigated and incentivised. In Himachal, the traditional delicious apple production depends on vagaries of nature and pollination, as irrigation facilities are not available in Shimla district, which produces more than 90 per cent of the fruit in the state, farmers said. To increase productivity, apple farmers demand virus-free and self-pollinating and sturdy apple varieties that can withstand wind and snowstorms under the Rs 1,134 crore horticulture development project. “The sturdy high density plants raised on seedling is the way out to save the apple industry in the state,” said Prem Chauhan, who has raised his orchard by developing his APS apple variety on his 12 bigha farm in Jaltahar, Kotkhai, where he has achieved 30-40 MT per hectare production that, he says, will go up once all planted high-density apple trees come into production. “The productivity and quality is the only way farmers need to adopt to compete with foreign apple. But then, the government needs to upgrade its extension service and should supply certified virus-free plants to farmers, who need them,” he said.
Officialspeak
"To combat low productivity, the department is introducing high yielding varieties and encouraging farmers to go for high density plantation with assured irrigation system. We are also introducing non-commercial, low colour strains of the self-pollinated apple plants. Besides, we are making farmers aware about the use of honey bee colonies and plantation of 30% pollenisers with commercial varieties in orchards. For controlling hailstorm, sufficient funds under anti-hail net have been kept. Likewise, to provide relief from drought, funds for the use of mulch and drip irrigation are being released to farmers." ML Dhiman, Director horticulture
"The per capita land holdings of farmers on an average have shrunk to three bighas that has made horticultural unsustainable for small and marginal farmers. Imagine the plight of farmers, when duty-free import of apple will flood markets and ports with foreign apple during peak apple season. For crop loss, the government has not included hailstorms and windstorms under crop insurance scheme, which amounts to open loot of farmers by crop insurance companies, which are minting money, while farmers are reeling under crisis over the years. Banks are debiting money from the accounts of farmers, who have availed Kisan credit cards, without their consent and crediting the same into the bank accounts of insurance companies." Rakesh Singha, President, Himachal Seb Utpadak Sangh and Theog MLA
