Despite Bumper Crop of cherry this Year, farmers worries low price

Srinagar : The Harvesting this year of Cherry began early due to warmer weather as the fruits got ready for plucking in Kashmir. The season is on peak stage amid bumper crop the low prices worries farmers in valley as market are not touching satisfied rates.One of the owner of cherry Orchard while talking to media said, this year the production of cherry is satisfactory but the prices have hit a new low.‘Little price variations make huge difference in profit margins’.

He added, “The price of 1 kg box of cherry is around Rs 90 on average. Some get Rs 93 per box while there are other farmers who got Rs 85 for the same,” Bhat said.He further added, they sold the same quantity at Rs 100 on average last year .According to Sahil Ahmad grower from Shopian, harvesting of the crop began concurrently a month early,Despite unusual weather and hailstorms, but farmers were not getting much money owing to lower rates in the Mandis.

According to the people Shimla Cherry is one of the reason of low price as both states of fruit arrived in the marketplaces at the same time, lowering the price of the latter despite its superior quality and taste.Shimla cherry was being sold directly by farmers in Delhi Mandis for Rs 300 per kilogram of the box, but the Kashmir cherry was only selling at Rs 200 despite its high demand, good quality, and taste.He added “Makhmali” cherry box was sold last year amid covid 19 lockdown for Rs 200 per kg at the orchard.

Farmers owing to a lack of air-conditioned vehicles, the variety of cherry could not be shipped outside of the union territory this year.Lastly farmers pin hopes on National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which has been assisting farmers in increasing productivity by giving appropriate finances.They hope that a market intervention mechanism is developed by the NAFED in association with the local authorities to ensure better prices for the produce.Farmers say, if government assistance is provided, they would try to sell the cherry produce directly to outside Mandis in the future for lucrative prices