Shimla, Oct 10 (IANS) Unseasonal rainfall, cold weather during the flowering stage and inadequate chilling hours have been identified as the key factors behind the decline in apple production in Himachal Pradesh this season, Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi said.

Addressing the media here, Negi on Friday added that 13,202.666 metric tons of apples had been procured so far under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) by the Himachal Pradesh Horticultural Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC) and Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Marketing and Consumers Federation Limited (HIMFED).

The Minister said that 1,23,34,739 apple boxes had reached markets during the current season so far, while adverse weather conditions had affected the state’s apple crop.

Defending the state government’s handling of payments under the MIS, Negi accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of misleading farmers and orchardists.

He said the present Congress-led state government had inherited outstanding MIS dues of Rs 114 crore from the previous BJP government.

According to Negi, the state government had not only cleared the liabilities inherited from its predecessor but had also paid more than Rs 262 crore to farmers and orchardists so far.

Highlighting reforms under the state government’s Vyavastha Parivartan initiative, the Minister said the traditional registration process under the MIS had been replaced with an application-based system to improve transparency.

He said the revised mechanism had reduced the number of registered farmers and orchardists while ensuring greater transparency in the process.

Negi added that payments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) had been made to 11,285 farmers and orchardists with fewer than 30 bags and 2,827 with fewer than 100 bags under the scheme.

Meanwhile, around 7,000 farmers and orchardists with more than 100 bags had been identified for verification.

Of these, around 2,000 cases had been verified, while land-related documents had been sought to complete verification in the remaining 5,000 cases.

The Minister also said the state government had announced a Re 1 increase under the MIS, a move expected to benefit thousands of farmers and orchardists across the state.

–IANS

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