The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh has criticized the Union government’s apple import policies, labeling them as anti-farmer and anti-horticulture. The state Education Minister Rohit Thakur expressed disappointment over the reduction of duty on apples imported from New Zealand from 50 to 25 per cent under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), stating that this decision negatively impacts apple growers in Himachal. Thakur emphasized that apple cultivation is crucial to the state’s hill economy and any policy that undermines domestic growers directly affects the livelihoods of numerous horticulture-dependent families.
Thakur highlighted that the Modi government discontinued the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) share for culled apples and other agricultural and horticultural produce, which was previously a centrally-sponsored scheme introduced by the Congress government. The budgetary provision for MIS in the Union budget was drastically reduced from about Rs 4,000 crore in 2022-23 to a mere Rs one lakh in 2023-24, rendering the scheme impractical to implement. This decision, according to Thakur, strips growers of a crucial safety net, especially for cull fruit, and signifies the Centre’s anti-horticulture stance.
Despite facing financial challenges, natural disasters, and economic difficulties from the past, the state government has continued to support apple growers. Thakur noted that even without Central assistance, the state has allocated nearly Rs 160 crore from its own resources over the past three years for the procurement of cull apples under MIS.
