Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi said that 1,23,34,739 apple boxes had reached markets so far during the current season. He also said that 13,202.666 metric tonnes of apples had been procured under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) by the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) and HIMFED.
Addressing a press conference here today, Negi said that apple production had declined this year due to several factors, including untimely and unseasonal rainfall, cold weather during the flowering stage and inadequate chilling hours.
The minister said that the present state government had inherited outstanding MIS dues of Rs 114 crore from the previous BJP government. He added that the current government had paid more than Rs 262 crore to farmers and orchardists, in addition to clearing the pending liabilities inherited from the previous government.
He said that payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) had been made to 11,285 farmers and orchardists with fewer than 30 bags and 2,827 farmers and orchardists with fewer than 100 bags under the scheme.
Meanwhile, around 7,000 farmers and orchardists with more than 100 bags had been identified. Of these, 2,000 cases had been verified, while documents related to land records had been sought for verification in the remaining 5,000 cases.
