13,202 metric tonnes of apples procured so far during this season: Horticulture Minister
Shimla, Oct 09
· Unseasonal rainfall, cold weather during flowering and inadequate chilling hours factors responsible for reduced apple production
Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi, while addressing a press conference here today, said that 13,202.666 metric tonnes of apples had been procured so far this season under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) by the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) and HIMFED.
Jagat Singh Negi said that several factors had contributed to the decline in apple production this year, including untimely rainfall, unseasonal rains and cold weather during the flowering stage, and inadequate chilling hours.
The Horticulture Minister said that the BJP leaders are misleading farmers and orchardists. He said that the present state government had inherited outstanding MIS dues amounting to Rs. 114 crore from the previous BJP government. In addition to clearing the liabilities inherited from the previous government, the present state government had paid more than Rs. 262 crore to farmers and orchardists so far.
Jagat Singh Negi further said that 1,23,34,739 apple boxes had reached the markets so far during this season.
The Horticulture Minister said that, as part of the government’s Vyavastha Parivartan initiative, a long-standing practice under the MIS had been changed to ensure greater transparency. Farmers and orchardists are now being registered through an application. He said that this had resulted in a reduction in the number of registered farmers and orchardists while ensuring complete transparency in the process.
He said that payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) had been made to 11,285 farmers and orchardists with fewer than 30 bags and 2,827 farmers and orchardists with fewer than 100 bags under the MIS. Meanwhile, approximately 7,000 farmers and orchardists with more than 100 bags had been identified. Of these, 2,000 cases had been verified, while documents related to land records had been sought for verification in the remaining 5,000 cases.
Samagra Sikhsha
