By Baldev S. Chauhan, IANS
Shimla : Trade in Himachal Pradesh apples has been affected by a shortage of trucks and smaller utility vehicles, with farmers unable to transport their produce to markets in time.
The three-month long harvest of the fruit is currently midway and at its peak. The fruit is transported from the state’s sprawling apple belt in the mid-hills by trucks and pick-up utility vehicles.
At least 600 trucks and thousands of smaller pick-up utility vehicles are required every day.
“But due to the shortage of these vehicles, many farmers have been waiting for over a week now to transport their produce to the nearest market,” says Lekh Raj Chauhan, president of the state apple growers’ association.
Every year the state government lifts the tax on trucks from outside the state during the apple season to draw transporters to the state. But there is a severe shortage this year.
“More than the trucks, farmers need the smaller pick-up vehicles, and this demand is met from within the state and hence the problem,” says Chauhan.
“I am losing money each day as my harvested crop loses its freshness in my storehouse reducing its market value,” says Susheel Tegta, a farmer.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come down hard on the ruling Congress for not doing enough to overcome the vehicle shortage.
“The state government has mismanaged the arrangement of vehicles for transporting apples and is still not waking up to the crisis, which is worsening each day,” says Narendra Bragta, a prominent BJP leader who hails from the apple belt in Shimla district that produces the bulk of the state’s crop.
Apple is the main cash crop of the hill state, with the trade valued at over Rs.15 billion. The industry is already battling a shortage of labour from Nepal as fewer workers have arrived this time.