The brisk winter weather in Kashmir is not the only thing that carries coolness this winter; it also carries new opportunities for apple farmers. As the Controlled Atmosphere (CA) refrigerated warehouses in the Valley begin to open their bulk storage areas, a quiet revolution is taking place in the orchards of Pulwama, Shopian and other areas.
For thousands of apple producers who have become hopeless about their prospects during the harvest peaks, these new climate-controlled storage facilities are their saving grace, changing what would have been a season of disappointment into one of cautious optimism and renewed hope.
The statistics tell the story. Just a few months ago, when apple growers were at the peak of the harvest season, they were caught in a familiar dilemma.
There was a glut of fruit on the market, the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway had been closed, and prices fell to levels that were not sustainable. Farmers could receive only a little bit of return on their production for a 15 kg carton of apples that should have sold for full value. For most farmers, the fear of watching all their hard work rot in the street was crushing.
But this year is different. Instead of being forced into desperation sales, more and more farmers are taking a different route and are now using the expanding network of CA warehouses.
In Pulwama, farmers would often line up to reserve space at the facilities where they grow fruit, making a wager on what their produce might be worth in the future, rather than taking a risk with what they have today. The quality of the facilities gave them confidence in their wager.
The wager is now paying off. As the first phase of the main CA storage facilities opens in a number of carefully planned steps, apples placed in storage back in September of this year are now being delivered all over New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad just as demand begins to rise and prices recover.
The benefit here is not just about providing a place to store apples, it is about giving apple growers access to refrigerated technology that will preserve the quality of their apples for a period of time. The temperature can be controlled very precisely, as can the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide, thus allowing growers to have quality apples for up 6 months.
As the Valley continues to move forward, the goal of cold storage should still be a priority, but it should be equally important to make cold storage available to all the growers in the Valley through cooperatives, transparent pricing, and assistance from government agencies.
