Mainstay of the state’s economy, three-fourths of India’s total production, Kashmir apples have survived spot-less through the Valley’s 30-year insurgency. Is this about to change, as the Centre takes over procurement in its bid to restore ‘normalcy’, militants strike back with threats, and growers watch their fruit rot? An Indian Express report
An olive-green mine-proof Caspir vehicle of the Army stands in front of a long, tin-roofed platform in Sopore’s fruit mandi. At Asia’s second-largest apple market, these should be bustling days. But it’s all quiet, the mandi’s stalls empty. As the clampdown in Kashmir continues, for the first time, the apple has become a target in the Valley’s three-decade-old conflict.
Realising how central the fruit was to its attempts to restore “normalcy” in Kashmir, the Central government had announced on September 5 that NAFED (the National Agricultural Produce Marketing Federation) would procure apples in the Valley — a first for the central agency. Earlier, nearly a month ago, the government had said trucks of fruits, including apples, were moving out of Kashmir, “like always”. On September 25, the Army released aerial pictures from Jammu and Kashmir as well as a video captioned “loading of apples… people moving on with life”.
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