Mehbooba Mufti, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), slammed the National Conference (NC) government on Sunday for letting nearly all of the Valley’s C-grade apple crop rot this year. She blames their failure to roll out the crucial Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), which helps farmers sell lower-quality apples without losing everything.
In a sharp statement, Mufti pointed fingers at NC chief Omar Abdullah’s administration. She said their neglect has wiped out 99 percent of this season’s C-grade harvest, leaving apple growers in a tough spot. “This isn’t just inefficiency—it’s outright apathy toward the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy,” Mufti declared.
She highlighted her late father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, as a true champion of the horticulture industry. “He saw it as the lifeline of our region, not some seasonal side gig,” she added. Under his watch, the sector got a major boost: toll taxes on fruit transport vanished, new markets (mandis) popped up across districts for easier sales, and the MIS kicked off to buy up C-grade apples and prevent desperation deals. He also launched the High-Density Plantation Scheme to modernize farming and ramp up yields.
Horticulture powers Jammu and Kashmir like nothing else—it supports over 700,000 families, pulls in Rs 5,000 to 6,000 crore in revenue each year, and makes up 8 to 9 percent of the union territory’s GDP. But Mufti argues NC leaders have long treated it like an afterthought. This year’s mess piles on top of other headaches for apple farmers: constant Srinagar-Jammu highway blockades, harsh weather, and skyrocketing costs that have already strained the Kashmir economy.
“Growers aren’t begging for handouts—they just want fair play, the MIS back in action, and reliable roads to markets,” Mufti stressed. She called on the NC government to fix this fast by expanding the MIS, keeping the Srinagar-Jammu highway clear for trucks, and making horticulture a core part of economic plans, not a footnote.
For context, horticulture outshines even tourism as Kashmir’s top industry, adding a whopping Rs 10,000 crore to the local economy annually. Apples lead the pack, but the Valley also thrives on cherries, walnuts, almonds, peaches, and pears that ship out to markets across India. This season, though, has been brutal—ongoing highway disruptions left countless truckloads of apples spoiling on the road.
Lately, things have picked up a bit: Over the past three days, more than 6,000 trucks loaded with Valley apples have rolled out via the Srinagar-Jammu highway and the alternate Mughal Road linking Shopian in the Valley to Poonch in Jammu. Still, the damage from earlier delays has hit growers and traders hard, underscoring why reliable support for the apple crop and horticulture sector matters so much to Jammu and Kashmir’s rural heartland.
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