Kashmir’s farmers seek check on quality of fertilizers, pesticides
Srinagar Nov 04: With horticulture being a backbone of Kashmir’s economy, the fruit growers have been seeking a check on the quality of pesticides and fertilizers being supplied to farmers in the valley.
Horticulture contributes over eight percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Jammu and Kashmir.
As per the government figures, 7.5 lakh families/35 lakh population are directly or indirectly involved in this sector.
A production of 20.35 lakh metric tonnes was recorded during 2020-2021 and generated revenue of Rs 7000-8000 crore, according to official figures.
However, farmers said that the fruit production could have doubled had good quality fertilizers and pesticides available in markets.
Mehraj Din, a fruit grower from Sopore said post abrogation of Article 370 then Covid has been detrimental for the horticulture sector.
He said there have been 40-50 percent losses to farmers for the last three years.
“We could not sell our fruits on time nor could we store due to lack of cold storage facilities resulting in heavy losses. Besides, there is availability of substandard pesticides and fertilizers in markets. Had there been good quality fertilizers and pesticides available, our production could have doubled,” Mehraj Din said.
Another fruit grower Bashir Ahmad from Shopian said he used to earn Rs 1 lakh a decade ago from fruit production.
“Now I earn Rs 1.50 lakh. Although, there has been a 50 percent increase in earnings but the cost of fertilizers and pesticides have been over 200 percent during these years. Besides, there is poor quality of pesticides and fertilizers available in markets which are proving detrimental to the horticulture sector. They should check the quality of fertilizers and pesticides which are being supplied to farmers,” Bashir said.
He also said authorities did not purchase low quality fruits from farmers for the last two years due to Covid.
The Market Intervention Scheme was launched in September 2019 when farmers could not sell their produce due to the restrictions in Kashmir Valley following the revocation of Article 370.
Under the scheme, apples will be procured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) directly from the growers/aggregators at optimum prices. The payment was to be directly credited into the bank accounts of the growers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
A senior official said there are several agencies who are checking the quality of pesticides and fertilizers.
“If anyone has any complaint about any product, they can directly bring into notice of concerned officials and they will take action accordingly,” the official added. (KINS)
