Apple farmers in Kashmir are reeling under the burden of heavy bank loans while the prices of fertilisers and spray oils are sky-rocketing in the absence of any regulatory mechanism. The presence of spurious spray oils in the market is also adversely impacting apple production. In fact, this year it brought down the apple production to almost half of the normal produce. The spurious Spray Oil mafia has cohorts in the government.

During the last 2 consecutive harvesting seasons in November 2018 and 2019, there was heavy nonseasonal snowfall in the valley which caused massive damage to apple produce and orchards. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, this particular calamity caused damages estimated at around Rs. 2,000 crores. As compensation, the government paid the affected farmers Rs. 3,000 each, while in some cases, the amount was Rs. 4,000, which is an absolute pittance considering the massive damages suffered by the farmers. These farmers have literally been left to fend for themselves. Farmers under the banner of J&K Kisan Tehreek have been campaigning for the affected farmers, demanding adequate compensation from the government and implementation of the crop insurance scheme in the state for any such future calamity, besides a one-time loan waiver. Till now, the regime has not shown any readiness to meet any of these demands.

We need to continuously resist all the anti-farmer policies!!

(Forwarded to Insaf Bulletin by Vasanthi Raman)

Basharat Shameem

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