Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Oct 4: The poor infrastructure is affecting the trade activities at the Pulwama fruit market in South Kashmir as apple growers are facing trouble in marketing their crop.
The traders said that the space crunch of the market was recently removed by including over 50-kanal of land to the existing market, but trading facilities stay below par. With dismal trading facilities, the apple growers are finding it difficult to their crop to the consumers.
“The facilities like auction sheds, grading and packing sheds and shops are not available in the market. This is hampering our business,” Abdul Hamid Malik, president Fruit Growers, and Dealers Association Prichoo Pulwama said. He added that continuing the trade facilities are dismal as only three auction sheds are available in the market.
He said besides auction sheds they have demanded construction of grading and packaging space where nearly 10,000 apple boxes can be processed at a time. “Lack of facilities means we have to store our crop in open spaces and that increases the chances of damage. We suffered huge losses in last two years due to untimely snowfall,” he said.
Moreover, the authorities have left the recently added land uneven causing difficulty in moving around. “The market needs to be macadamized so that trucks can move easily,” Ghulam Rasool, another grower said, adding that lack of an exit gate creates chaos in the market.
The traders said the absence of a proper fruit market affects the overall economic development of the district. They said that they have been waiting for the facilities for last several years. “First they wasted a lot of time in negotiation with the affected land and house owners that came in the expansion of the market. Now that the issues have been settled they are taking time in developing the market,” a trader said.
Located at the Pirchoo area of South Kashmir’s Pulwama District, the fruit market caters to hundreds of villages across the district. Every day hundreds of growers along with traders, commission agents and transporters throng the market for the trade activities but face extreme hardships to carry their business.
With more land being converted into apple orchards, there has been an increase in apple production for last few years in the district. As per the figures of the department, the area under crop yield went from 12, 389 hectares in 2014 to 17, 072 hectares in 2018, subsequently increasing the production from 85, 095 metric tons (MTs) to 1,49,678.6 MTs. However, the full potential of the area has not been explored owing to a deficiency of marketing and irrigation facilities.
The traders said besides easing the trade the market would create jobs for hundreds of local youth. “More youth are opting for the apple business these days but authorities are unable to issue licenses to the majority of them due to a lack of facilities in the market,” Umar Ahmad, a young apple trader, said.
Director Planning and Marketing Unit of Horticulture, Imam Din, told Excelsior that they are committed to improving the trade facilities. “Space crunch was causing problems for the growers. We have removed it by adding more land to the market,” he said. He added that the work on the fencing and exit gate would start soon as funds are available.
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