A well chosen, compact and nicely trimmed hedge gives neat and tidy look to the garden. The best time for propagation is February-March or during the monsoon season. Dig a trench 30 cm x 30 cm and expose the soil to sun for 2-3 weeks. Add well decomposed farmyard manure to enrich the dug-up soil. A dose of anti-termite is compulsory in the effected area. Firmly settle and level the soil as undulating ground will result in unequal growth levels.

A space of 4-6 cm must be left for watering. Hedges can be planted in single/double row depending on how compact the growth is required. Distance from one plant to another could be 8-12 inches and one row to another 6-8 inches. All the hedges must be trimmed regularly, especially during the early growth period to encourage compact growth. Hedges are also made from shrubs and trees.

While designing the garden, Climbers are used to cover or camouflage a place and sometimes serve to highlight the contours of the building. They require the same care as required by the other plants. Climbers have a natural tendency to grow straight causing the main shoot to get exposed. When it is trained straight its falling branches cover the main shoot but when trained in horizontal position the main stem gets invisible.

Identify plants and places for pots as they form an important component of the garden. A separate location for developing pots in an enclosed area to maintain the supply chain of seasonal flowers in the garden is essential.

Last but not the least is the cost factor. The garden can bear a slash in the budget but will not compromise on any cut in terms of time and labour.

One other important factor to keep in mind while designing your garden is that the gardeners should take caution and take up light warming-up exercises prior to getting involved in the various tasks of gardening to avoid backache, pulling of muscles and ligament-related problems.

Under ‘Operation Monkey’, hundreds of farmers have procured permits from the state wildlife authority to kill the wild animals causing them losses, a move that has angered wildlife activists.

"More than 3,000 farmers across the state have managed to procure permits to kill the wild animals – mainly monkeys, wild boar and blue bull. They will hunt the animals till Dec 23," Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, state convenor of farmers’ outfit Kheti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (KBSS), told IANS.

However, wildlife officials claim that only selective killing of animals has been permitted. "As per our information, less than 300 permits have been issued by the department till yesterday (Thursday)," said Chief Wildlife Warden A.K. Gulati. "Permission has only been given to shoot the animals in the fields. Our range officers are monitoring the killings. There would be selective killing and no mass culling. Moreover, the aim of using the ammunition is to shoo away the animals from the fields," he said.

S.S. Chandel, a farmer of Dehna village in Cheog panchayat, some 30 km from Shimla, said villagers have pooled in money to buy ammunition and that seven guns have been deployed in nearby villages to kill the animals, mainly monkeys.

"The villagers have procured 38 permits. By pooling money we have jointly procured ammunition and the shooters have been deployed. We will kill the monkeys on sighting them," Chandel said over telephone.
But their decision to kill the animals has led to widespread criticism from animal protection groups.

"We will discourage any form of mass culling or the indiscriminate issuing of gun licenses. Himachal Pradesh is also known as ‘Dev Bhoomi’ or land of gods. The state must uphold this tradition and marry it with modern scientific tools of wildlife management," said Arpan Sharma, a spokesperson for Delhi-based Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations.

N.G. Jayasimha, US-based Humane Society’s campaign manager in India, said: "We urge the farmers to be more humane to the animals."

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal informed the state assembly Dec 6 that the monkey menace had reached an alarming proportion and that the government had authorised the chief wildlife warden to allow their hunting along with the wild boar and the blue bull.

"To check their rising numbers, the government has sterilised 23,428 monkeys so far. The sterilised monkeys were later released in their natural habitats," he said.

The wildlife wing estimates that over 900,000 farmers mainly in Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Una, Mandi and Kangra districts were affected by wild animals. Monkeys, numbering over 300,000, mainly target cereal and fruit crops, causing extensive damage.

Tanwar of the farmers’ outfit, however, said the state government was not serious about addressing the simian menace. "If the government is serious, then it can hire trained shooters to eliminate the problematic monkeys," he said.

Agriculture is the main occupation of the people in the state, providing direct employment to 69 percent of its workforce.

Mohan Chauhan, MD, HPMC said, “HPMC procured about 62,800 MTs of apple under Market Intervention Scheme through 151 collection centres in the state as on 26th October, 2010 and processed about 9100 MTs at Fruit Processing Plant Parwanu and Jarol (Sundernagar) and sold about 26,000 MTs in open market at Parwanu (Solan) and Pandranu (Jubbal) respectively. The balance spoiled quantity which could not be lifted/transported due to compelling reasons will be utilised for rightful purpose commercially as manure.”

(Source)

45% of the procurement simply rotted!! That’s it. No questions asked. No heads rolled. No one blinked.

Can one imagine that MD of Adani or Reliance would dare say that 45% of their procurement simply rotted because of the ‘compelling reasons’? They would have got a kick and their entire career would have got screwed for good. Rest assured, no such thing will ever happen in this state.

Let me elaborate more on his statement above. While 9100 MTs apple will be processed at HPMC plants, 26,000 MTs was sold in the open market. Can anyone tell why apple was sold in the open market in the first place? The idea of support price was mooted for the culled fruit, which was unfit to be sold in the open market.  This was to be used for processing in HPMC plants for making juice, jams and other products. By dumping this fruit in open market, HPMC contributed in crashing the market prices thereby spoiling the economy of the growers.

Simply note the difference in figures, 9100 MT and 26,000 MT..!!

Why HPMC did not use the maximum fruit in it’s processing plants for which it was meant? HPMC products have a pan India demand and HPMC also has a pan India network. Why they are not using this network to market it’s products?

It takes roughly 1 kg of apple to prepare half kg of jam. Private companies sell 1 kg of jam for Rs. 160/. Do I have to do the maths to calculate the  profit margins, when they are buying apples for 5.25 per kg?

The problem over the years has been that the government has not bothered to take stock of these plants. It was during the the tenure of Dr. Parmar that these plants were set up, who had a vision to make this state truly a fruit state of India. Sadly his vision died with his death and what we are seeing today is a result of the complete mis-management accumulated over the years by both Congress and BJP. Once they screw up the govt run plants, like the Gumma carton factory, they conveniently bring consensus to close the plant.

How convenient?

Does these processing plants ever run to their full capacity? HPMC never bothered to come out with such figures.

Horticulture department also runs HIMCU which is responsible for canned fruit products. They have a plant at Naubhar in Shimla, next to the Horticulture directorate. Just visit the place and you will not find a single cann in the entire plant. The equipment is totally ancient. There is no machine to peel the fruits and the entire peeling is done by hand!!!

This is the state of the govt. run processing plants.

On one hand private companies are expanding their operations every year, Himachal govt run plants are becoming white elephants despite readily available raw material and huge demand of products in the market. Doesn’t this fall under the purview of anyone? Or the comfort of lal battis makes one to ignore the basic duty for which one gets elected?

Some murky understanding between the higher ups in the government and the private companies can not be ruled out. While the govt tends to ignore the production at HPMC plants so that the private companies can do brisk business. Why is that on one hand the HPMC is not able to streamline production in just two units where as private players are expanding production every year?

Let me turn to the last line of the MD, HPMC quote about preparing manure out of those rotten apples.

After all the mis-management the govt finally came up with a golden idea to prepare manure from the rotten apples. No one knows what is the scientific basis of this manure. Will the Horticulture University certify each and every bag which will be distributed to the growers, as this idea is said to be originated from there.

But firstly, the big question, who will answer the tax payers of the state that the apples bought at Rs. 5.25 per kg is being used to prepare gobar. It is not Bragta or Dhumal who are spending the money from their own pocket but the money is being spent from the tax payers kitty.

Let Narender Bragta who is (ir) responsible for horticulture in the state, tour lower Himachal districts of Hamirpur and Kangra and tell the people that his government is preparing gobar out of the apple procured @ Rs. 5.25 per kg from their hard earned money.

Finally, let me share a joke (true incident) doing rounds at the HIMCU plant. A burra sahib from the Horticulture department lately  visited the plant for inspection and was given a bottle of jam as a gift. Next day the sahib called up and thanked for the excellent bottle of honey given to him!

Well, this is the true state of horticulture.

Only in Himachal..!!

Shimla: A bumper harvest in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradeesh has pushed down prices by a fifth over last year, causing further distress in the state, though corporate buyers such as Concor and Adani are purchasing briskly, reports Economic Times.

As per the ET report the current prices at Shimla mandis are varying between Rs 300 and Rs 700 for a 20-22-kg box depending on the quality. The Kinnaur price is between Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,500 for a 20-22-kg box. The Jammu and Kashmir prices are varying from Rs 200 to Rs 800 for a 25-kg box.

“With a bumper crop across Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, prices are 30-40% less than the previous year. The earnings to farmers are less and traders have made huge business, which has not been passed to the consumer,” said All India Apple Growers Association president Ravinder Chauhan.

In Himchal, the crop is likely to touch 37.5-40 million boxes from the earlier expected 25 million boxes. Kashmir produces over 12 lakh metric tonnes a year but horticulture director Dr GH Shah said this year’s produce is over 30% from last year. “It would have been double but inclement weather, hailstorm and speedy winds destroyed most of the additional crop,” he said.

The Kashmir apple grower is suffering from two immediate reasons — over-production in Himachal Pradesh and delayed monsoons. “Usually, there was a gap of one month between the harvesting in Himachal and Kashmir and by Diwali our produce would start going to the market,” said Syed Altaf Bukhari, the promoter of the FIL industries, Kashmir’s major agriculture entrepreneur. But this year this was not the case.

The panic in Kashmir has added to the crisis. Currently, 700-800 truckloads are going to the Azadpur mandi against the demand of 300 truckloads. This has triggered a glut and a fall in the prices.

With an 18,000-tonne controlled atmosphere (CA) storage in Himachal Pradesh, Adani’s Agri Fresh is hopeful of procuring over 25,000 tonne this year from both states. “The previous year, due to high prices we were only able to procure 9,000 tonne apple,” said Adani Agri Fresh vice-president Shrinivas Ramanujam. In Kashmir, the CA storage facility has been underutilised.

Said Bukhari, who owns 18000 metric tonne of CA storage: “We are yet to start storing because there is no good response to storage this year.” Khuram Shafi, who runs a 4,000-metric tonne storage capacity, in Lassipora, Pulwama, in the heart of south Kashmir’s apple belt, however, said the capacity was full 50% and arrivals were brisk.

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Fruit And Vegetable Growers Confederation today came down heavily on the BJP government for the closure and selling of AIPIL carton factory at Pragati Nagar in Shimla District.

In a signed statement, General Secretary of the Confederation, Sanjay Chauhan said the successive state governments have miserably failed to run this factory properly. He said the growers always preferred the cartons produced by this factory than the private manufacturers because of it’s best quality.

Chauhan said due to this factory, growers were assured of a proper supply of cartons on demand and there was no shortage of cartons in the previous years. But after the closure and the decision of the present BJP Govt. to dispose it off,there was open loot by private manufacturers who were hand in glove with the BJP leaders. He said the present govt. remained silent spectator under pressure as seen and evident this year. The growers have to suffer big losses due to this open loot, he added.

Chauhan said the present govt. has come with the proposal to dispose it off and was making multifarious announcements to establish processing plant, cold store and now the govt. is saying that it will open an engineering college on the same land.  This clearly indicates that the present BJP is anti farmers and has failed to protect the interests of the farmers of the state.

He said 10 years back the BJP govt. with same Chief Minister and  Horticulture Minister in ruling had signed a MOU on 11th April, 2000 with Maharashtra based Indage group to put wineries with total processing capacity of 18000 tonnes at Pragati Nagar and Nagwain and valuable land worth many crores was given free of cost to this group along with excise exemption till 10 years.

He said at that time big dreams were sold to the growers with even bigger publicity. But the Indage group did not put any winery and grabbed this precious land out of which 28 bighas of land was of AIPIL carton factory. The Indage Group enjoyed excise exemption worth crores of rupees without any producing unit putting huge loss to state exchequer, which needs to be enquired into and those responsible for the loss to the public income must be booked and punished accordingly.

It was very depressing that the govt. is using and disposing this precious land sacrificed by the small and marginal farmers of the area at very low price to put this significant corrugated carton factory of utmost use to the fruit growers just for nothing to industrial houses with the motive to grab the valuable resources like land in the state. If the state govt. Is interested to open engineering college in the area then there is plenty of govt. land vacant in the surrounding where it can be opened, Chauhan said.

This factory was established to provide quality cardboard cartons to fruit growers of the state, which was used as best alternative for conventional wooden boxes used for packaging. The main aim and objective behind the establishment of this carton factory was to discourage the dependence of growers on forest for packing material and protect the environment and preserve the forest for future. The growers after establishment of this carton factory immediately switched over to cartons and there was great demand of the cartons being produced in AIPIL carton factory.

Reacting to reports in a section of media, Horticulture Minister, Narinder Bragta expressed the concern by saying that any move to dilute or repeal the aforesaid Act would be anti-farmer and pre-judicious step of Delhi government, which should be condemned.

He said state BJP government had launched the fight against charging of market fee in Azadpur fruit market Delhi as it took the matter to Delhi High Court, which had ordered to stop charging of market fee from the farmers.

Delhi government did not show any respect to this order by not implementing in its true spirit, but is also held-bent on diluting APMC Act against the interest of farmers.

He said charging of 8 per cent commission on selling of produces of farmers is an abuse to the by-law of APMC Act, which would be challenged by state government on appropriate forum if Delhi government did not implement its provisions in favour of farmers.

He also appealed to the the northern states of Uttrakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana to come forward with it to further build up the pressure on the Delhi government as the issue equally affects the interest of farmers of their states.

Undoubtedly, year 2010 has to be the one, unique and unforgettable apple season. The initial charm of over production, of bumper crop, was subdued by the subsequent unending woes starting with an awakening drought like conditions in early summer and then the uninvited spells of hail stones doing an early damage and all the growers were eagerly looking for long promised anti-hail guns. It was closely followed by the incessant rains (July onwards) doing the lingering damage, thus adding the missing feather on the apple growers’ already spoiled hats, hardly leaving any time for spraying of pesticides and other necessary fungicides to protect the bumper crop and make it a quality one. Consequently the brackishness and over coloration of pigments at an early stage of apple growth was seen across all major apple growing belts.

Prolonged inclement weather condition of excessive rains in upper Shimla area and across the apple growing belts caused damage to the already pathetic conditions of link roads and the SH-10 from Theog to Rohroo, which is being widened by the Longjian Road and Bridge Company (LRBC) and its sub contractors. Although the company had taken care of constructing retaining walls and culverts at few problematic locations but that could not help rather added to the monsoon mayhem.

If I am not wrong, there has to be a clause in the RFP/Tender document of the SH-10, which talks about ‘providing an alternate route for commuters to pass, in case there is substantial damage done to the existing Right of Way (ROW). The damage mostly was done to the mere negligible existing carriageway all along. Whatever existed before was either damaged by the heavy machinery or was covered in debris and loose soil which added to the woes of growers and truckers. But no one ever pointed about any such provision of ‘hindrances free ROW to be provided 24×7 throughout the stretch by the contractor’. But at the same time mere scale of landslides and the consequent jams couldn’t be ignored and averted.

After the very initial spell of rains our PWD ‘babudom’ was able to assess the cumulative losses to roads to about Rs. 332 Crores, within 24 hours. What an efficient department! Hats off! Perhaps, they were busy negotiating the number of contracts and the subsequent commissions they would receive. Apples are none of their business, I think. If one would assess the losses incurred by apple growers throughout the seasons the figure would surpass the whooping 332 Cr. amount. PWD was able to assess the losses within 24 hours but our horticulture department is still sitting blindfold, perhaps adopting wait and watch policy. Had there been any commission involved like one being milked by PWD, our minister Saab would have been more proactive in field and not been sitting in office issuing statements after statement of “All is well in apple belt”.

Consequently, most of the produce was on road for 7-10 days and this delay in taking produce to the markets within and outside the state due to shortage of vehicle caused by jams and the incessant rains caused an early ripening and even rotting in most of the cases. In fact there have been cases of jams due to rains, where in an older consignment reached market after a fresh consignment from the same orchard was even sold.

Under the prevailing pathetic plethora of the major arteries leading to Rohroo and the link roads as well, there was an acute shortage of trucks for transporting apple boxes, which consequently led to the competitive bidding right in backyards of the respective truck unions to hire these numbered trucks available. Thus the exorbitant rates, almost double the union rates were paid to the truckers, which initially growers agreed to pay to somehow take their ripening produce to market. Soon this bubble inflated beyond apple growers control and was taken advantage by the truckers and the union men, acting hand in hand to milk apple growers and they did rise to the occasion. But at the same time when the ripened consignments reached market there have been cases reported, wherein growers could barely just break even or were mostly in losses. This critical situation was created by human error. Market was such, people indulged in spraying their apples for early coloration with a clear side effect of ripening.

At the same time few smart growers who initially agreed to pay double the market freight to truckers, on reaching market indulged in forgery and treachery of all kinds. There are cases reported by commission agents and truckers wherein, upon reaching market, 20 to 30 apple boxes went missing from trucks and consequently truckers were made to pay for the loss. A loss manipulated through unloading clerks and the laborers. Perhaps, we should not forget that everyone today has a price tag; one has to be smart in evaluating same, and our growers played over-smart to smart truckers. In fact, I too have received such advices from growers I met at random throughout the season, to save some money from truckers, but all I could do was turn a deaf ear to them.

There has been cases where just to earn handsome freight truckers indulged in basking for more than double the union freight repeatedly and growers had no option than to go for it. In one such case which, I heard from one of my close friend, the truck driver indulged in overloading rather than under loading considering pathetic condition of roads and the consequent incessant jams all along the eighty kilometer stretch of SH-10. Unfortunately, the truck met with an accident, rolling down a nalah and the driver ended up losing both his legs along with the yearlong hard work of some apple growers. The driver was earlier advised and cautioned by his friend, not to charge such an exorbitant rate and not to take undue advantage of these unavoidable circumstances created by nature and also not to indulge in over loading. But the greed to earn more had an edge on his human feelings and he got his price for life.

Drenched in tears, the driver called and spoke to his friend, “You were right. Just for few rupees more, I have lost both my legs. I was greedy and I have got my reward for life.”

There are countless such live case stories from nooks and corners of Himachal Pradesh during this ongoing apple season. Perhaps, these were the crisis time. Rather a difficult situation, a natural calamity and unfortunately it was accentuated and converted into a fully blown crisis by us humans; the politicians, the growers and the truckers alike mulling over the ideas of earning a few rupees more.

Looking at the transportation side of this season, I think the double axel vehicle (10 and more tyre vehicles) has been causing major jams across SH-10 from Theog to Rohroo. Mostly travelling in a caravan of five to six and always overloaded and almost occupying the whole right of way (ROW) of the serpentine narrow road, created constant bottlenecks throughout the 80kms stretch. Things would have been far better if such big trucks were not allowed on SH-10 and rather transit truck terminals were made operational at Theog or may be at Shimla on NH-21 and one at Nauni or Solan to tap the Rajgarh Road.

Jams, jams and only jams. There have been times when it took more than 24 hours to reach Jubbal and Rohroo from Shimla. For last thirty days or may be more, average time for one way journey between Shimla and Rohroo have been more than 12 hours instead of regular 4-5 hours. There have been times when passengers were stranded for nights in middle of jungles from Jubbal to Kotkhai and even at Kufri sometimes, without any respite for hours. Children, girls and ladies suffered the most, and over that our ministers feel happy in printing statements after statements that “All is well in apple growing belts”. Perhaps, for them it was ‘all well’ on the day of their official visit, I hope. On visit day all concerned departments indulged in saving their dark rotten skin of inabilities and inefficiencies and hiding their utter failure in managing the deplorable conditions faced by common man; apple grower and the commuters.

Let’s keep aside the visits during the apples season. Let’s talk about such ministerial visits during summers. Why it was only on the day of minister’s visit to Kotkhai or to Jubbal, that the water sprinklers of Lonjian Road & Bridge Company or the local sub-contractors were most active? Not a single instance of dust filling the valley on the visit day. But, on any other normal day, common man had no respite from the dust laden faces and the clothes; let’s forget about ours lungs. As if only our ministers and their pawns has the only lungs to run this state and the country. Common man’s lungs can survive the dust storms. These are very important things of the Environmental Impact due to such mega projects which came into limelight very late. Perhaps, I tend to prejudice myself by thinking and analyzing that in glam and glitter of the so called ‘easy apple money’, we the residents of Kotkhai, Jubbal and Rohroo region are turning a deaf year to the intricacies of such development project and a far sustainable development issues. Why not? Perhaps our lawyers are busy sorting out some individual criminal cases where they can mint big fat money rather fighting for such larger social collective issues facing common man.

Perhaps, our leaders of yester years played a perfect “politics of wines, pines and the apples”, and the development issues of better roads and consequent opening up of economy in the region were sidelined and ignored by the common man in lieu of devouring more wines, cutting more pines and planting more apple saplings. There goes an anecdote about our region which I often heard from my mentor. When a college was being setup in one of the most famous princely states of independent India, the local residents opposed it. The reason being;”Our kids especially our girls would indulge in love affairs and elope with boys from other areas”. If better higher education development can be sidelined for such reasons, we better forget about roads and the so called economic development. But even after decades the situation has not changed for good. The girls and boys are still eloping, but uneducated, unemployed missing the charm of good education and a secured better life, which was only possible had the college been established there.

Coming back to apple season, under such fully blown critical condition which we faced this season, the rich were not affected much but the poor and the middle class people were. The produce of their yearlong hard work was left to rot on road sides for days and even weeks and went unnoticed by the ruling government. To add fuel to the fire, the shortage of packaging materials like cartons, trays and separators created a black market bubble which exploded and spread like a wild fire. A desi tray bundle was being sold for double the actual market price and the branded ones like Claridges and Mohan Fibre, were being sold even higher sometime thrice the actual rate. Once again the common man was made to pay and suffer.

I tend to question that, “Was there really a shortage? Or was the bubble created by the nexus of wholesale and retail dealers in concatenation with the bureaucrats and the political goons?” When the experts of horticulture department of our so called most efficient, ‘Golden State’ Government had already given their estimates of ~ 4.0 Cr. plus boxes for this season way back in April-May, I hope all preparation might have been done to meet this demand well on time by the manufactures across north India. Then how can just in very first few weeks of apple season there be a shortage of trays and other packaging materials? Is the nature to be blamed or the market especially the black one, thriving on the commissions of politician and the beaurocrats? Perhaps we tend to forget that we are living in the times and the ages of ‘commission’; the rot thriving within leading to vicious cycle of crippling corruption.

On a quick glance if 75% of the total apple boxes (~4.0 Cr) were transported to the markets on an average 100% higher freight,(assuming Rs.50 as the average freight) we the growers of Himachal collectively have ended up poorer by Rs. 150-175 Crs. at least. On similar grounds the packaging material especially the trays on an average were sold for double rate (Rs 600) than the market rate (Rs 300) and the losses can be calculated to about Rs. 60-75 Cr. (Assuming that only 75% trays used during the apple season were sold for double the market price). The cumulative losses of machine and other such unaccounted losses might take the figure beyond Rs. 500 Crs. (the calculations are on a conservative side though) Loss of life I don’t think can be calculated in monetary terms, although any XYZ life insurance company agent can always tell you about your net worth. How smart!

One can notice a stark difference between the apple season 2009 and 2010. One such difference is the apple production figures and the prevailing average market price fetched by each box. As reported by many growers, in year 2009 few residents of apple growing belts indulged in thefts of apple from farms of their neighbors as the market was such. One box could easily fetch you thousand rupees or may be more. In 2010 no such case has been reported yet. The rot is thriving within. This rot is in innate human nature; the greed for more and more money, by hook or by crook.

On one hand I tend to appreciate police dept for trying their best to manage the situations but they too have lost their nerves very often under such demanding conditions resorting to extreme measures like beating and using disparaging abusive language to drivers and the common man in open. Their efforts were commendable throughout the season.

In all, people I have met during this apple seasons were right in claiming that apple season 2010 is one like never before and we hope that there shouldn’t be one like this in future either. Although god gave us a chance to earn but at the same time he made it sure that it won’t come so easily. There is a little bit of pain, hardship and struggle which we have to endure.

When everything in market is available for double the price except apples, the truck union operators too were milking the situation. Perhaps, it was season of the ever hungry and greedy or rather ‘opportunistic people’ and this lot are not hard to find today. Perhaps human race is infested with such people who se opportunity and business in a natural calamity. But such businesses won’t thrive for long, I hope.

We must accept the fact that, there has been a lackadaisical approach by Government in handling this live crisis under which apple growers are reeling till date without any respite.

When on a day there are 2-3 lakh apple boxes left to rot on road side it is called CRISIS FOR GROWERS. When the packaging material is available for double the market price, it’s CRISIS! When truckers indulge in basking for exorbitant freight rates, it’s CRISIS! But day after day government officials and the politicians had one word to print on newspapers “ALL IS WELL IN THE APPLE BELT”. The real scenario, the ground reality was undermined and ignored under nose in bright day light. And we the residents are happy with it as we always have been to the larger collective social issue. Not a word, not an awakening calls from any corner of the apple growing state. What a tragedy for a democracy thriving on commission?

Perhaps, the market is being controlled by the commission agents and the Ladanis/Merchants, working in collaboration, fooling the so called simple, innocent growers of Himachal. One of the best mechanism devised is the fad quite common prevailing amongst the Grovers,”High Grade”. Who actually is responsible for this? No one but us growers. A standard box is meant to carry 20-22 kgs of apples depending on the size. But we the growers are adopting the fad of ‘high-grade’ to fetch a better market price thus 27-30 kgs boxes of apple are being marketed. The emphasis is more on quantity not the quality. Eventually who is at loss? None but us growers. Extra 5-8 kgs of apples in a box has a marginal impact on the market rate, may be 50 to 100 rupees at the max. If a good quality lot of say 100 standard boxes (20-22 kgs) is sold for Rs 700 in the name of low grade, in case of similar 100 boxes of high-grade (27-30 kgs), we end up fetching a 100-120 more at the max. First 20 kgs @ Rs 35 and additional 7-10 kgs @ Rs 12-15) isn’t it a losing proposition for us growers. All we care about is quantity not quality and we growers only take pride in telling each other that “my boxes are 5” higher” indicating with our clenched fists held atop other. But we are not clever because we have already willingly thrown the ball in Commission Agents’ & Merchant’s court, in the name of ‘High-grade’. But is that really needed? Perhaps its a million Rupees question which, I think, every grower should ask himself.

Contrary to our Indian practice, if one checks apples from Newzealand, Australia, USA and China (brands like Stemmit, Nordic, Dole, Washington apples etc.) one can observe their emphasis on quality of apples and the level of inner and outer cartons, almost of the same size taking the load evenly and they avoid the spending on steeping etc. and not to miss the quality of packaging. Perhaps we need to compete with them for a long term market and to bring in quality revolution. During March this year, I happen to compare Indian packaging being done by Reliance, Adani Agrifresh and some independent Growers, with the imported brands. Perhaps after four-five months of store half of our apples in a box are badly damaged and rotten, whereas the imported brands are quite safe and fresh. The high-grade is to be blamed in our case. Perhaps, we as a grower unions/council in collaboration with our horticulture universities should come forward to undertake a rigorous research and devise such parameters where in all boxes are well designed and standardized to avoid the ‘high-grade’ fad and the quality is emphasized rather than the quantity. But with the current scenario and level of awareness and the mad rush for money, we will never awake to such quality issues. We are happy with ‘high-grade’, who cares about quality. For us, it’s always good to have a 6” high box so that two layers of rotten apples at the bottom can be siphoned to markets. How smart!

Let’s talk about the much hyped and celebrated project of Apple Mandi at Kharapathar which was suppose to be operational this season but is running behind the schedule. How could it be? Was it delayed for a reason? One can explore this angle as well beyond the rain issues. On one hand if Kharapathar Mandi was operational this year, many things would have been better but at the same time it would have created bottlenecks on SH-10 as there isn’t sufficient parking space for trucks and jeeps along the Highway and this may have surely led to choked artery like one being experienced daily at Rohroo Mandi, the new Dhali mandi and very often at the Solan Bypass Mandi even. Thus, it is expected from Government not to underestimate such projects and carry out a comprehensive demand assessment study of the same and plan for parking of sufficient number of trucks and jeeps along with sufficient circulation space and to ensure an effective implementation of the same during peak seasons hours. Perhaps the Grover community should take initiative to make the ruling governments to work and sort out such important issues in advance rather later creating maddening chaos.

Perhaps the songs of creating a separate ‘Hill council’ and a separate statehood and some more ‘separates’ for apple growing districts is not going to change the game for better unless we the people, the growers come forward to persuade the ruling government in working towards our genuine realistic concerns on priority basis.

Things can be better if we as collective citizens of the hills know our rights and then make the ruling government work for a common goal of infrastructure development in the apple belts in specific and state as a whole. Better roads, better transportation facilities, better education, better efficiency and all those little things which matters for a progressive community. Not jams at least! Perhaps, we need to grow beyond the irrational unrealistic upper and lower Himachal divide for a collective gain for our future generations to reap the harvest of same.

V S Manuraj, an IT professional and JP Nagar resident, said, “There has been an extraordinary rise in the price of bananas in the past two months. Earlier, bananas were available for Rs 30 to Rs 35 per kg, but in August the price went up to Rs 60 per kg. As a result, I stopped buying bananas. Right now, the price has come down to Rs 50 per kg. Apples are now more affordable.”

Initially, traders attributed the rise in banana prices to the rise in demand during the Ganesha, Onam and Ramzan festivities. But the prices remain firm even after the festivities, and traders attribute it to short supply. They insist that the price has started coming down and will reduce further in the coming days.

Ayaz Pasha, a trader, said, “Last year, during this time, the retail price of apples from Himachal Pradesh was at least Rs 70 per kg. But this year, you can get the fruit for Rs 45 per kg. The price will go down further to Rs 30 per kg. The season of low prices will last till January 2011.”

Syed Mathin Aga, president, Bangalore Fruits Commission Agent, said, “The fall in prices is mainly due to a good crop this year. At this time, we do not import apples.”

Retailers are rubbing their hands in glee as apples fly off the shelves.

Pasha said, “Right now, it is the end of the season in Himachal Pradesh. So, we will be sourcing apples from J&K where the produce is high.

Apple from tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts is yet to hit the market and this year the production in twin tribal districts is expected to cross 40 lakh boxes as compared to 20 to 25 lakh boxes during the previous years.

The production was about 90 lakh boxes more than the highest production of 2.67 crore standard boxes in 2007 and almost three times more than the 1.30 crore boxes produced in 2009.

About three crore boxes had already been sent to various markets across the country while 90 lakh to one crore boxes were yet to be sent to the market.

About 40 lakh boxes were stranded in Jubbal-Kotkhai areas due to a massive landslide on Shimla-Jubbal road near Gumma, 50 km from Shimla. The road was closed on Saturday evening as a 200-metre stretch of the road was washed away and hundreds of apple-laden trucks got stuck en route.

Apple from tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts was yet to hit the market and this year the production in twin tribal districts was expected to cross 40 lakh boxes as compared to 20 to 25 lakh boxes during the previous years.

The government agencies sent about 70,000 tonnes of apple under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for processing but due to lack of storage capacity, a large quantity of apple was rotting.

A record apple crop coupled with heavy rains causing numerous road breaches in the apple belt, especially in Shimla district, hampered transportation of the fruit.

While substantial quantity of apple was sent to hitherto unexplored markets in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, some big agri-business companies like Adani and Reliance also directly purchased apple from the growers.

Meanwhile the government has totally failed in addressing issues of the apple fruit growers regarding the bumper crop in the state. The conditions of roads in the apple belt including the NH-22 on which majority of the apple is transported is in shambles and would have put any responsible government to shame. Truckers and small vehicle owners are over charging freight for transporting boxes and the government has turned a blind eye towards this practice.

Condition of state highways and interior roads is no better either as people are being forced to pay manifolds to send their produce at exhorbant rates.

The Horticulture Ministry which is responsible for smooth operations have completely botched up the apple season this year. There is an acute shortage of apple cartons and trays and these are being sold in black market at higher prices.

Trade representatives said 60-70 percent of the crop in the state had perished, pushing up prices in north Indian cities.

‘More than 60 percent of the crop in tomato-growing belts in Solan, Shimla, Mandi, Sirmaur, Bilaspur and Kullu was damaged due to excess rainfall,’ Agriculture Joint Director R.K. Saroya said.

Himachal Pradesh is a major tomato-producing state of the region. Tomato is grown in about 1,024 hectares in the state. In 2009-10, the total production was 338,240 tonnes.

Saroya said the maximum crop damage was witnessed during incessant rainfall in most of tomato-growing pockets from Sep 21-23.

‘There is hardly any healthy crop to reach the market,’ he added.

Govind Ram, a tomato farmer near Solan town, said this monsoon caused a lot of damage.

‘In August the crop damage percentage was 30-40 percent. This month it rose up to 70 percent. The excessive rains also took a toll on other vegetable crops including cabbage, capsicum and beans,’ he added.

An official of the agriculture department said most of the remaining crop in the state was hit by the fungus disease buckeye rot and bacteria-caused leaf spot.

Sellers at the Solan wholesale vegetable market said tomato prices would again shoot up due to low supply.

The wholesale price of tomato, which fell marginally to Rs.30 a kg last week, was Rs.35 a kg  on Saturday and would further increase to Rs.40-45 in the coming festive season.