Fruit Production in Uttarakhand

Lack of adequate marketing facilities in the agricultural sector has remained one of the most talked about bottlenecks in the efforts for wellbeing of the agriculture dependent population in the newly formed state of Uttarakhand. Following the guidelines of the model national Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act of 2003, Uttarakhand also adopted the Act in the year 2011 with a hope that the Act would streamline the marketing possibilities for farmers and the sector would flourish with new investments pouring in through increased private participation. The present article, with an attempt to review the performance of the Act in the state of Uttarakhand, highlights that not only the Act has failed in improving the marketing opportunities for the agricultural sector, it has in reality squeezed the market for the common producers due to inordinate delays in institutionalizing the Act and other factors related to governance of the Act

Value addition to fruits in a State where horticulture is the mainstay of the local economy, is an essentiality. Keeping this in mind and that 30-40% of the locally grown fruits get wasted owing to high perishability and poor transport facilities, we propose setting up of a basic winery. The winery will use fruits like apples, mangoes, peaches, plums, apricots, and pears. The following proposal provides a holistic assessment of the feasibility of the project along with the specifications of the planning and implementation process. We aim to lower the high dependence on migration and promote optimum utilization of fruits along with making ‘fruit growing’ a viable and profitable occupation.