Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Oct 9: Over 70 dry and fresh fruit crop has been damaged due to heavy rain and snowfall in Panchari-Landhar and Latti-Dudu area of Udhampur district, inflicting heavy losses on orchardists who are now hoping for a financial package.
Dry fruit and fresh fruit is a source of livelihood for thousands of families in Jammu and Kashmir, including remote and picturesque area of Panchari, Latti and Dudu in Udhampur district but growers associated with this sector are facing losses due to low crop this year as well as sharp slump in prices owing to COVID-19 pandemic as no buyer is reaching to the growers.
Jaswant Singh, Davinder Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Bodhraj and Raghuvir Singh farmers from Meer and Kanth Gali area said that fresh fruit have totally damaged this year. The best crop is the apple along with apricot, pear and plums but due to heavy rain over 70 % of the crop has been badly damaged. Walnuts production is hardly 20 to 30% this year.
“We produce good quality walnuts which would be sold at more than Rs 200-250 per kilogram during the corresponding period last year, now we have no buyers and we are forced to sell it to locals buyers at a very low price of Rs 100-120. We are living in a remote village, having no proper road connectivity. We travel around 6 km to reach nearby motorable road daily. The farmers have no facilities to sell their production due to no local Mandi’s and forced to sell their product locally with very minimal rates.” They added.
“If the market continued to remain sluggish, the growers would face mounting losses,” one of the villagers said.
“This year crop of walnuts, apple and other fruits was damaged due to hailstorm and other crops such as maize is damaged due to lack of rain and we only have 20 to 30 percent crop production this year,” he added.
“Mostly farmers have taken KCC loans and we urge the Government to waive off our loans, they pleaded.
Chief Horticulture Officer Udhampur, Brij Vallab said, “Last year farmers earned well due to bumper crop production, but this year crop is 40 percent less due to unprecedented weather conditions. It’s a fact that farmers are facing hard time to sell their produce due to lack of buyers in Jammu region.”
“We are coming up with 1st Walnut Processing Unit in Udhampur with help of private entrepreneurs under Aatm Nirbar Scheme.
Farmers will take walnuts to this unit and we divide walnut into grading and packing and this would increase employment opportunities for local youth as well as farmers.” he added.
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