Faced with chaotic marketing practices in fresh fruits especially in apples, the main cash crop in higher hills, the Himachal Government is mulling bringing legislation to enforce and regulate marketing of the produce.
Expressing concern about exploitation of fruit growers at the auction markets, Horticulture Minister Vidya Stokes said, “The State Government was contemplating to bring in amendments in the HP Agriculture and Horticulture Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 2005 and General Amendment Rules 2006 for the act, to specify both weight and count of apples for different packs.”
“Weight of apples inclusive of packaging should not be more than 22.5 kg for bigger packs and 11 kg for smaller packs, irrespective of type of packaging to be used by the growers as it would bring about standardisation in the apple marketing trade and prevent fruit growers from being exploited by middlemen,” said Stokes.
With boxes ranging from 20 kg to 35 kg reaching the fruit markets during harvest time, the sale prices are not comparable, says Ranvir Mehta, a fruit grower from Kotgarh. More often, the price differential goes against the grower as he ends up selling more fruit for a lesser price per unit by weight, he added.
However, he questioned the ability of the Government to enforce the standardisation regulation because the market operators encourage the growers not to flout them so that they can manipulate the price discovery mechanism, which is done by open auction.
Calling upon fruit growers to adhere to specified norms for better returns, the Minister added that the Horticulture department would propagate the government’s policy by holding special camps in the fruit growing areas.For the coming fruit harvest, the government was also changing norms for procuring processing grade fruit. “Under the market intervention scheme, now instead of 60 kg packing in bags, the procuring agencies HPMC and Himfed would be buying only in 18 kg bags,” said Stokes. Both the government agencies have been asked to ensure availability of the bags to farmers during harvest time.
The Government also intends to ban use of a fruit ripening chemical ‘ethral’. ‘It would be done in a phased manner, said the Minister. Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture has been asked to find out a viable alternate, she added.