GOVT’S FOOD PROCESSING PROGRAMME | Traders seek boost to walnuts industry

Srinagar, Jan 27: Traders in border town Uri of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district have expressed resentment over government’s newly-initiated ambitious project aimed at revolutionising the food-processing sector and transforming the lives of farmers in Kashmir saying that walnuts of Uri had been neglected by them.

The government said that ‘UT Level Food Processing Programme for Development of Clusters for Specific Products of J&K’ is Rs 879.75 crore initiative that aims to maximise farmer income and minimise post-harvest losses. The government would focus on seven products from 17 districts of J&K. Muhammad Yousuf Kakroo, a walnut trader in Uri said that the walnuts from the area had not been taken up by the government in this important programme.

“In this new programme, the government has focused on the walnuts from Kupwara and Kishtwar, but Uri’s Lagama town has the largest and oldest walnut market in India. But this market has been forgotten by the concerned authorities,” Kakroo said.

Abdul Rasheed Shah, another trader from Garkote village said that they had been supplying the walnuts to national and international markets.

“Since the walnuts are being imported to Indian markets from foreign countries for the last few years, we have also been facing losses worth crores of rupees. Don’t our walnuts deserve to be in this programme,” he said.

Shafqat Aziz, a trader, said that Uri has a historical relevance as far as walnuts are concerned.

“This market was started before 1947 and people from across the border used to come to purchase and sell their walnuts in this market,” he said.

Faisal Kakroo, another walnut trader said, “We demand that our walnuts should also be given a boost and taken to the national and international market.”

In October 2017, the then Minister of Horticulture, Syed Basharat Bukhari had visited Uri and promised that the government was committed to promote walnut production in Uri but traders say nothing was done.

Barely, 3 km from the Line of Control (LoC) and located on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road, Lagama is a popular walnut market in the entire J&K.

Lagama gets the most of the walnut production from the areas falling along the LoC in Uri.