Last Updated on May 28, 2021 at 2:18 pm
The pandemic stricken time proved to be a bountiful produce year for strawberry growers of Jammu and Kashmir but they have no place to sell the crop due to Covid-19 lockdown in the region. The crop has seen a 20 percent increase but it’s all in vain.
Though produce was high, having no market available for sale proved to be not at all cheerful for the farmers as they are not able to get desired results. Due to lockdown, strawberry growers are incurring heavy losses despite the bumper produce this year. The farmers said the government hasn’t tried to rescue their crops.
Manzoor Ahmad, a strawberry grower in Srinagar’s Batapora area, said that they have incurred more than 50-60 percent losses. He is one of the leading strawberry growers in the valley.
Also he added that strawberry farming is their main source of income. Earlier they used to sell their crops in different districts, vendors on boulevard, downtown and even other areas. But due to lockdown they are incurring heavy losses.
Sources said that the farmers are completely on their own and have time and again approached the government for cold storage for strawberries as fruit has a low shelf life span. The cool weather makes it suitable for strawberry cultivation but needs to be quickly transported for consumption due to its short life span.
Shabir Ahmad, a farmer, said that despite such good production this year with a heavy heart we have to throw our produce away as we have no market . Though the produce was more this year we are still going to bear losses.
Only hope farmers are having is the state government who can come forward for their rescue by helping in providing storage for the production so that they can sell a bit later.
