THE National Coordination Committee (NCC) of the Apple Farmers’ Federation of India (AFFI) held its first meeting at Srinagar on July 20. The meeting was presided by AFFI’s co-convenor, Rakesh Singha, while the introductory address was delivered by convenor Mohd Yousuf Tarigami. A political and organisational report was placed by Shubhojeet Dey on behalf of the convenor. After the discussion in which 14 members participated, P Krishnaprasad, finance secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), to which AFFI is affiliated, gave a special address to the members and Rakesh Singha concluded the meeting after replying to the suggestions and discussing the future tasks.

The apple economy in India is led by farmers in the Kashmir valley and Himachal Pradesh, and to a small extent by farmers in Uttarakhand. A host of systemic issues have gripped this economy – extremely crucial to the livelihoods of lakhs of rural households in the western Himalayas – since the neoliberal turn in agricultural policies and the general withdrawal of state support. Being a cash crop, apple needs input subsidies, credit support, guidance by scientists, weather forecasts, storage infrastructure and market support prices for it to have a mass character. In the dirigisme regime that preceded the neoliberal period, apple was taken up in a big way, both in J&K and Himachal Pradesh following policies by the state that encouraged cereal producing farmers to shift to the fruit. According to different estimates, it is clear that an overwhelming majority of apple growers today owned less than one hectare of land and are marginal farmers. It is in this context that AFFI was planned to be formed, in the many deliberations of the All India Kisan Sabha, as an organisation defending the interests of the common apple grower.

Some local level burning issues that came up in the discussion by NCC members of different states were: 1) collusion between input dealers and emergence of mafia-like practices through which spurious chemicals are being sold to growers; 2) cold storage owners forcing growers to use grading and packaging paid services at the storage itself; 3) arbitrary freight charges demanded by transporters; 4) sale of diseased high-density (HD) varieties having a high attrition rate by private companies; 5) washing away of roads that are essential for transporting apple during the monsoon season; 6) payment arrears by commission agents in APMC mandis, etc.

The following day on July 21, a public meeting was held at Chawalgam, Kulgam. Yousuf Tarigami while addressing the public meeting accused the Jammu & Kashmir administration for not preventing the entry of spurious pesticides and fertilizers and allowing huge profiteering by traders hiking the price of such inputs. He also flayed the union government for giving controlled atmosphere stores (CAS) and cold storages on rent to corporate companies and demanded to provide storage facility at subsidised rate directly to farmers. Currently, the government is giving 50 per cent subsidy to corporate companies to build CAS to run at commercial rent.

Rakesh Singha accused prime minister Narendra Modi for signing agreement with US president Biden to reduce the import duty from 70 to 50 per cent, thus facilitating import of apples. He said that the Modi government was pauperising the farmers by increasing cost of production and denying remunerative procurement price and facilitating corporatisation of the apple industry. In the domestic market, the price of apple ranged between Rs 250 to Rs 500 while the procurement price of farmers was in the range of Rs 30 to Rs 60. Due to corporatisation, common people were unable to consume apple. He demanded a price policy to ensure 50 per cent of the retail price as the procurement price for farmers.

P Krishnaprasad, former MLA from Kerala, congratulated apple farmers of Kashmir for building the AFFI at village level and for their massive participation in the public meeting. He appealed to build a vibrant farmers’ federation in all villages since farmers could fight and win their rights if they were united based on their burning issues. He said that the historical farmers struggle at the Delhi borders was a game changer and the consistent struggles of farmers as well as workers on livelihood issues have been a major factor in the remarkable setback suffered by the BJP-NDA in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Zahoor Ahmad Rather, president of Jammu Kashmir Apple Farmers’ Federation (JFAFF) demanded full cover insurance in the public sector for apple farmers. He also demanded to quarantine the hybrid plants to prevent diseases in the domestic plantation.

The 11-member NCC was constituted six months ago in Chandigarh during AFFI’s first national conference. However, the present meeting had additional invitees which expanded the total strength to 20 members. As we are still taking the initial steps in building AFFI as the leading federation of apple growers’ movements, the first NCC meeting was oriented towards identifying certain immediately realizable or achievable demands, the resolution of which will attract the ordinary apple farmer towards the organisation. The report noted the intervention of the Seb Utpadak Sangh (AFFI’s HP state unit) in successfully pressurising the HP state government to mandate the universal carton for packaging apples which had attracted the appreciation of a large number of apple growers. Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir Apple Federation (AFFI’s J&K unit) had intervened recently on the issue of crop insurance given losses due to the unsuitable weather this season. This too had attracted growers who were affected by the vagaries of climate change year-after-year.

The AFFI now plans a month-long membership drive to reach 56,500 members, collecting fees to establish a working fund and set up an office in Srinagar. The formation of village and local level committees will be completed with conferences and a systematic action plan. Local-level agitations will strengthen primary units, and the AFFI NCC will hold regular online and quarterly physical meetings. Ahead of the Himachal and J&K harvesting season, AFFI will promote its charter of demands through agitation. On August 9, AFFI will join the SKM’s 'Corporates Quit India Day' campaign against corporatisation of agriculture. A seminar and mass campaign on climate change and the apple economy will be held on August 17, opposing the commoditisation of natural resources. National Apple Day will be observed on October 21 with rallies on the charter of demands. A Demands Day will be organised, submitting the charter to chief ministers in apple-growing regions. A research team, in collaboration with the P Sundarayya Memorial Trust, will study producer and marketing cooperatives in the apple economy, with a report to follow. An agitation in New Delhi will address apple imports, with a meeting planned with agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. AFFI will also support and join all-India calls by the SKM.