The J&K chapter of the Apple Farmers’ Federation of India has asked J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s to intervene to restart the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for Kashmir’s apple industry. In a letter written to the Lieutenant Governor, it highlighted the MIS’ role in procuring inferior quality C-grade apples in the Valley since 2017, when the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) first launched the scheme.
“This year, the UT Administration has discontinued it for the current marketing season, causing much worry among growers. Every year there are visuals of this culled fruit being dumped on highways and rivers, as the procurement under MIS is anyway a small portion of the total produce and most growers have no other avenue to sell their C-grade apples,” said Zahoor Ahmad Rather, president of the AFFI.
Source: thehindu.com
