J&K : The Other Slowdown

If the Indian economy is in the doldrums, imagine the state of the economy in Kashmir, forcibly shut down along with communications and all other signs of life on August 5.

- Moazum Mohammad

Kashmir’s horticulture industry has an annual turnover of Rs 8,000 crore and provides employment to some 3.5 million families. In the midst of harvest season, the fruit and vegetable mandi in Shopian, south Kashmir’s apple growing heartland, is deserted. Among the three largest markets in the Valley, it would ordinarily see over 4,000 visitors daily around this time, and dispatch 1,000 fruit-filled trucks to markets around India. Its daily turnover would be around Rs 4 crore. Despite the security situation and communication blocked, farmers paid to transport their produce to Delhi’s Azadpur mandi. But the sudden glut of fruit in a single market sent prices plummeting. Mushtaq Ahmad Malik, president of the fruit-growers and zamindars association in Shopian, says he doesn’t know what to do once the apples are picked from the trees. “Rates were expected to be high given the quality of this year’s bumper crop,” he says. Many farmers have chosen to leave fruit rotting in orchards. One established farmer and businessman in Sopore says he would rather “sacrifice” an entire year of income than “be exploited” and forced to sell his produce at rock-bottom prices.