Excelsior Correspondent
PUNE, Mar 14: The first World Apple Conference will be held in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir, from June 24 to 26, the organisers said here on Tuesday.
A Pune-based Non-Government Organisation (NGO) ‘Sarhad’is and Sopore Apple Farmer Producer Company are the moving spirits behind the event.
The conference aims to empower and strengthen the apple growers of Jammu and Kashmir who have been facing huge losses due to unprecedented and untimely fall in prices of their produce over the past 5-6 seasons.
The conference has been organised to inspire them to overcome their losses, said Dr Shailesh Pagariya, the director of the conference .
“This year, the prices of apples fell below expectation which led to losses for the farmers all over the state. Therefore, the conference will be organised to explore possible avenues to extend help to mitigate the effect of crop and financial losses to apple farmers because of unforeseen difficulties such as natural disasters, low crop yield, weak market, and storage issues, Pagariya added.
The conference will educate the farmers on crop insurance, value addition, cold storage, logistics and supply chain management and integration, which will be the core focus of the event,” he said
“Moreover, another major issue faced by the farmers is the wastage of crops, both premature and post-harvest. Premature wastage happens owing to fruit drop, which means fruits falling off trees before ripening which is due to various reasons such as pests, adverse weather and climatic conditions.
Post-harvest wastage can happen when the crop is not sold as the prices go down and evidently waste. Even when the produce does not reach the markets on time and turns rotten due to unfavorable transport, storage and warehousing facilities”, said Pagariya.
One of the best solutions to these issues is to construct good quality highways and strengthen transportation. Adequate cold storage facilities could also buy more time for the produce to reach the markets, said Adil Malik, the Chairman of Sopore Apple Farmer producers company.
The well-known, prominent researchers and academics in the relevant fields would be a part of the event and contribute to solutions for the major issues being faced by the apple industry as a whole, said Sanjay Nahar, founder president of Sarhad.
The conference will be held at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre. (UNI)
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