Punjab: Kinnow at Rs 5/kg, Abohar farmer uproots orchard

Punjab: Kinnow at Rs 5/kg, Abohar farmer uproots orchard
Abohar: After not getting the remunerative price for the kinnow crop, farmer Satnam Singh of Panjawa village uprooted his 10-acre orchard.

Bhartiya Kisan Union Khosa state secretary Gunwant Singh, who was at the orchard, said the condition of the growers in the village was bad because the government had not been paying attention to them, due to which their produce was being sold at throw-away prices.

Satnam said he had nurtured his 13-acre orchard for about 15 years like his own This season, the crop yield was good but he was not getting a remunerative price for the fruit. He had to sell his orchard’s fruit at the rate of only Rs 5 per kg. Upset over the situation, he decided to uproot his kinnow orchard that was not even meeting the actual cost.

Gunwant alleged that the state government was not paying attention to the kinnow growers in the largest area of Abohar — named ‘California’— and that no marketing facilities were provided.

He said the state government should have procured the kinnow fruit through the Agro Industries Corporation or arrangements could have been made to process the fruit at the local agro plant, but nothing of this sort was done.