Fruit bowl shrinks in Himachal

Solan, the fruit bowl of Himachal, may soon fall empty. The signs are ominous: The area under fruit cultivation has fallen from 12,000 hecta...

Solan, the fruit bowl of Himachal, may soon fall empty. The signs are ominous: The area under fruit cultivation has fallen from 12,000 hectares six years ago to 6,400 this year. With no market intervention scheme (read minimum support price) to bank on, and the prices plummeting to as low as 50 paise a kilo, hapless farmers are threatening to dump the native pears and plums for more lucrative vegetables and mangoes.

The Great Shift has already begun. Of the 45,000 hectares under cultivation in Solan, local fruits account for only 6,400 hectare; the rest grows vegetables and mangoes. In fact, bolstered by the market intervention scheme, the king of fruits has dislodged plums and pears from their pride of place. Today mangoes command 1,600 hectares against a mere 700 hectares growing the native plum and 1,300 growing pears.

Satish Kumar of Mungur village, who has uprooted half his 10,000 plum plants, blames his change of heart on the unremunerative prices. ‘‘Why should I grow local fruits when I get only 50 paise for a kilo of pears and Rs 2 for plums? That doesn’t even cover my labour charges for plucking, leave alone transportation and the initial inputs.’’

Disappointed by the rock-bottom prices this year, some farmers like Thakur Netar Singh of Basal village have decided not to pluck their pear crop at all. Farmers allege discrimination, saying that since Solan has never had a minister, its farmers have always been ignored by the government. ‘‘The returns were hefty till the ’70s, but after that it has been downhill all the way. The government must introduce a minimum support price of Rs 3-4 for pears and plums besides setting up food processing factories to encourage local farmers,’’ says Kumar.

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Geeta Ram Kashyap of Ghatti village warns that if the government doesn’t take some corrective steps, the Solan belt will turn its back on fruits forever.

District Horticulture Officer Des Raj Sharma feels the fault could lie with poor varieties of pear. ‘‘Bartlett and Flemish Beauty are quite a hit with consumers,’’ he says, adding that they are now trying to introduce Star Krimson, a new hybrid. But farmers maintain that none of the varieties found any takers in the market this year.

Local MLA Rajeev Bindal admits the problem is grave. He says on July 17, he introduced a bill in the Vidhan Sabha, seeking support price for tomato and garlic, but it was defeated. ‘‘I will try my best to get MSP for plums and tomatoes,’’ says Bindal, who believes that farmers can be lured back to fruits with a right mix of subsidy, industry participation, and good marketing facilities.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on the other hand, says that Solan farmers have never given any representation to him. ‘‘Himachal is the only state to have brought perishable commodities under the purview of the Market Intervention Scheme. Gradually, we will try and bring these fruits in its ambit as well,’’ he promises.

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While the powers-that-be mull the issue, farmers have given their verdict: It’s farewell to fruits.

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