Punjab kinnow growers get a mid-day meal shot in the arm

“We welcome this step of the Punjab government. Better late than never. This year we have a bumper crop of kinnow and we are facing loss due to cartelisation by the buyers who are not giving us price more than 10 a kg for the fruit,” Sukhmandar Singh, president of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rajewal- Fazilka district, said on Thursday.

In Punjab kinnow is grown in 47,000 hectares of which the lion’s share is cultivated in Abohar district (35,000 hectares). Other kinnow-grown areas include Fazilka, Muktsar and Hoshiarpur districts.

Moreover, the farmers have urged the school principals to directly purchase the fruits from them so that they get a better price for the produce. They get anywhere between Rs 4 and Rs 10 for kilo of kinnow, whereas the bananas that come from other states are available in the market in the range of Rs 30-40 or sometimes even more, Sukhmandar Singh said.

It is estimated that once the 19,120 government schools in the state implement the order, nearly 19 lakh students studying till Class 8 will have consumed around 40,000 quintals of kinnow a month.

Sukhmandar Singh said it is a healthier option for the students to have a local fruit instead of bananas in their menu. He called upon the private schools to follow their government school counterparts.

“The government should urge private schools who charge a hefty fee from students to give this fruit once a month to children. It will be a great service to the farmers and our consumption can go up to 1 lakh quintal per month. Private schools can include it as part of their CSR activity by giving one fruit a week to their students,” he suggested.

Darshan Singh, from Giddranwali village of Abohar and member of BKU Rajewal, said it can be a win-win situation if the schools purchase the fruit from them at Rs 15 for a kilogram and children will get to enjoy a juicy fruit.

“Kinnow is much cheaper than banana and in this weather, children will love to eat this,” he said.

Gurpreet Singh block president of BKU Rajewal and a resident of Patti Sadik village, hailed the decision and urged the school authorities to purchase kinnow only from Punjab till March-end. “We had been raising this matter for long and thank God that they have realised that local fruit is a healthier option,” he remarked.

Sukhjinder Singh Rajan, a kinnow farmer of Abohar, said that Punjab Agro has a processing plant in Abohar which can process 5,000 quintals of kinnows daily but they are doing only 200 quintals. “… And that too they are buying from wholesalers instead. Such problems are detrimental to farmers. Hope CM will look into this as well,” the farmer said.

Ranjit Singh Neela, another farmer, who does not have a buyer to take his kinnow fruit from the orchards, said, “the purchase of kinnow for mid-day meal is a welcome step, but government needs to focus on enhancing export of the fruit as this was not just enough to market the produce”.

The Punjab government was giving Rs 5 per student for the purchase of bananas on a weekly basis and school heads are supposed to buy fruits from the same budget till March.

“For the coming financial year, budget calculation will be done including the seasonal fruits and if there will be any change in the budget, it will be conveyed to the school heads accordingly,” said Varinder Singh Brar, general manager Punjab mid-day meal society.

The decision was also hailed by the teaching community alike. Digvijay Pal Sharma, president of Democratic Teachers Front (DTF), Punjab, “It is a welcome step to include the seasonal fruit in the mid-day meal replacing bananas. We urge the government to de-centralise the mid-day meal menu even further so that every district can decide their own menu as per the local availability of seasonal vegetables and fruits,” Sharma said.

On January 31 Fazilka Deputy Commissioner Dr Senu Kapila Duggal raised the issue of including kinnow in the mid-day meal instead of bananas in the meeting of deputy commissioners and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Duggal had pointed out the plummeting prices of kinnow. She told The Indian Express, “it is good that the option of seasonal fruit has been given now. I have told the Fazilka school heads to give kinnow only and even we are reaching out to other nearby districts like Ferozepur, Bathinda, Faridkot, Moga, etc to give preference to kinnow so as to help the local farmers”.