Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, June 5: Government is mulling to give 25 percent subsidy to the cherry farmers of the Valley on the transportation of fruit by air and refrigerated vans.
As per the officials of Horticulture Department, the Valley produces around 12, 000 metric tons of cherry every year with Ganderbal, Srinagar and Shopian being the highest producers. Being highly perishable, around 50 percent of the crop is transported through refrigerated vans to outside markets and the remaining are ferried by train and air.
This year the Government has made proper transportation arrangements for the crop as farmers could not transport their crop last year because of the COVID-19 lockdown and suffered huge losses.
Director Horticulture, Aijaz Ahmad, told Excelsior that they have urged the Government to approve 25% subsidy on transport charges. “I think the approval will come soon as funds are available. It will help the farmers in mitigating losses they suffered last year,” he said.
He said that they have devised a two-way mechanism to maintain a cold chain in transportation. “The refrigerator vans that bring perishable items to the Valley will take cherry in return,” he said.
He said the Government has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a private airline for transportation of perishable horticulture and agriculture products including cherry to various destination across the country.
“The growers can directly approach the airline for transportation of their produce at fixed prices. They can easily transport crop to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore at lower prices,” he said.
As per the officials, with introducing new high yielding Italian and American varieties, the cherry production in Valley has increased substantially since 2012 and many farmers have switched over to cherry farming.
“It is a great crop for generating income in mid-year,” he said, adding that a decline in production was witnessed after 2006 as the traditionally grown cherry varieties could not withstand the temperature variations and diseases.
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