MOBILISING farmers along lines of different crop-wise federations based on the decision of the 34th conference of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), has proven to be a significant decision. Taking this forward, the first conference of Jammu & Kashmir state unit of Apple Farmers’ Federation of India (AFFI) was held on July 15-16 in late Comrade Abdul Hameed Wani (a dedicated kisan leader) Hall in Shopian. A total of 165 apple grower delegates from 10 apple dominated districts of Kashmir, including four delegates from Jammu, attended the conference.

The conference was inaugurated by P Krishnaprasad, finance secretary of AIKS. Mohd Yousuf Tarigami, ex-MLA and spokesperson of the Gupkar Alliance, greeted the conference. A report was placed by Zahoor Ahmad Rather, which discussed various issues affecting the apple economy. The report, which also presented a 14-point charter of demands, was unanimously adopted by the delegates after a fruitful discussion. The conference condoled the deaths due to floods and expressed grave concern, and solidarity with the people affected by the devastation caused in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and other states. The conference then elected an 11-member state committee with Zahoor Ahmad Rather as president and Abdul Rashid Itoo as secretary. The delegate session concluded with a rousing speech by AIKS president Ashok Dhawale.

On July 16, a large public meeting was held at the Maidan in Shirmal area of Shopian. While more than 3,000 apple growers were expected, heavy rain just before it began, coupled with increased security checking at various points, and made it difficult for apple farmers to assemble at the venue. Despite this, more than 1,000 growers holding flags of AFFI from several villages joined, ignoring the stormy weather. Slogans of ‘Save Apple, Save Kashmir’ and ‘Apple Farmers’ Federation Zindabad’, rendered the place.

In his inaugural speech, Ashok Dhawale congratulated the farmers who were getting organised under the banner of AFFI and said that along with the struggle for higher prices and lower input costs for apple growers, AFFI and AIKS would also struggle for the restoration of statehood and the repeal of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A that is essential for the ‘Atma-Samman’ of Kashmiris. He also asked the apple growers to join the all India calls given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and the central trade unions (CTUs) to hold anti-corporate demonstrations in J&K on August 9, and to hold a three-day mahapadav at Srinagar from November 26 to 28, on the burning issues of farmers and workers.

P Krishnaprasad in his speech focused on the loot of apple growers where they get just 30 per cent or less of the value in the supply chain while the rest is eaten up by intermediaries, corporate agribusiness and retailers, as well as by governmental taxes. He stressed on the need to build the organisation of AFFI in every village so that growers could begin directly marketing to consumers all over the country.

Senior kisan leader Ghulam Nabi Malik and Zahoor Ahmad Rather addressed the rally and demanded that the government should give up its anti-farmer policies and take concrete steps to address the legitimate demands of the apple growers. They also appealed all people connected with apple production to unitedly raise their voice in support of demands concerning apple farming.

In his concluding speech, Tarigami said that be it the education of their children or their marriage, apples were the only hope of Kashmir’s apple farming community. He said that this community demanded nothing but a fair price for their hard-harvested produce. Tarigami sought the support from the farmers of the country in favour of the demands of Kashmiri apple cultivators.

APPLE ECONOMY
Apple is the common farmer’s gold in J&K. More than 75 per cent of India’s apples come from here. In the valley itself, there are eight lakh households spread across districts of Shopian, Budgam, Srinagar, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Baramulla, Kupwara, and Anantnag. Even in Jammu, apple is grown in Udhampur, Doda, Poonch, Ramban and Reasi, albeit on a much smaller scale. In terms of land distribution, more than 90 per cent of orchardists are small and marginal farmers (less than 2 hectare) in J&K.

Apple and other fruits were considered essential for J&K’s autonomous development path. The historic ‘Naya Kashmir’ manifesto adopted during the quite Kashmir movement had a primary objective to enable J&K’s horticulture to acquire leadership not only in fruit production and productivity, but also in the supply chain in the South Asian market. Unfortunately, the political events of 1953 affected adversely the developmental process.

The outcome has been that though more and more farmers have taken up apple cultivation in the last around four decades to avail better prices offered by the high-value crop, they often face disappointments and the sector is facing virtual stagnation.

A common farmer looks to his/her apple orchard to give good returns. However, he/she is a ‘price taker’ and suffers from the volatility of prices during the harvesting season in the near absence or lack of access to crucial logistical support of packaging, transport, and cold-storage/controlled-atmosphere facilities. Commission agents in mandis take their slice of the profit, while retailers too rejoice by charging consumers premium prices for apples that earned the farmer nickels and dimes. On average, the apple growers get Rs 50 per kilo of A-grade (best quality) apples from their traditional orchards, while consumers buy the same fruit at jacked up prices of Rs 150, Rs 200, even Rs 300 per kilo.

Even the Himachali apple grower suffers from the same loot. However, J&K suffers from a political nightmare like no other state, with the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A having come as a body blow to the apple economy here. The apple harvesting season in the valley is September to end of November. In 2019, apple harvesting was to begin in early September, but was delayed as farmers could not go out for picking due to the political turmoil since August 5. There was severe shortage of labour in apple orchards and no transport facility was available since trucks were not allowed in villages and interior roads.

In 2019, in majority of orchards, nearly half of the apple produce had fallen and was ruined causing huge loss to apple farmers. Transportation and communication came to a standstill. The union government then bungled the procurement by a thoughtless market intervention scheme through NAFED, nose-diving prices of whatever little apples that could reach the market to as low as Rs 13 per kilo! For a horticulture sector that commands Rs 10,000 crore, a conservative estimate showed a loss ranging from Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore. Calling it a devastating tragedy would be an understatement.

NEW CHALLENGES
Since 2019, it has been one challenge after another for apple growers. Through the COVID pandemic and even last year, the movement of apple laden trucks got disrupted along national highway. It is estimated that till September 28 last year, more than 5,000 trucks carrying an average of 20 tonnes of apples each were standing still on the national highway stretching from Mirbazar in Anantnag to Banihal tunnel. Apple fruit perishes within a fortnight, and for many growers, affording refrigerated trucks is not possible. This hit the common growers in a most cruel way.

Another way in which Modi government has hurt Kashmiri apple orchardists is through the unbridled, often illegal import of apples. Even though Afghanistan’s total annual apple produce is just 1 lakh metric tonnes, the country exported 6 lakh metric tonnes to India between October 2020 and January 2021 alone. Very recently, PM Modi reduced the import duty on US apples from 70 per cent to 50 per cent, flooding the domestic market further with cheap foreign apples.

All these and many other issues came up for discussion in the conference in Shopian. It was heartening to note that delegates who took part in the discussion were from almost all the districts of Kashmir valley. This shows that the crisis of the last years has awakened the apple growers across the valley to come together against the union government’s anti-farmer policies.

Of the 165 delegates, 120 were small and marginal growers, and 47 were young growers of less than 31 years of age while 83 were aged between 31 and 65 years. A majority of delegates (105) sold their produce to mandis outside the valley. Both these facts tell us that the J&K AFFI state conference attracted apple growers who are willing to take risks, undertake modernised farming, and forge links with apple growers in other Himalayan states.

AIKS has envisioned its crop-wise federations to seriously undertake the building up of producer and marketing cooperatives, and the conference too resolved to bring together growers into such collectives. By addressing the tasks of establishing required cold chain facilities including controlled atmosphere storage facilities, transportation, processing industries and marketing interventions, such cooperatives can develop supply chains in favour of the producers and the surplus thus created can be shared with farmers as additional price and to the workers as additional wage.

As the access to domestic markets is limited in the prevailing supply chains, the possibilities of directly marketing the apple produce from such cooperatives to southern states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu via a special policy of the respective governments can provide a new pathway for apple growers. Such innovative and real-time experiments only can counter the present exploitation of large capitalists and their intermediaries, as well as the central government which seems hell bent on breaking the economic spine of J&K.

Holding the conference as well as the public meeting on July 15-16 in Shopian was no small task. South Kashmir, which consists of Shopian, Anantnag, Pulwama and Kulgam is a volatile and sensitive region. A door-to-door poster campaign was conducted and large billboards came up in Shopian town as well as in villages.

Indeed, two days before the conference began, three innocent migrant labourers from Bihar were grievously injured by militants in Shopian town. But the efforts of kisan activists and public support made it possible to hold this conference successfully. It was covered well by media and the message got conveyed to the people that it is only through united struggles of the kisans, particularly apple growers, which can force the government to listen to their legitimate demands.