Srinagar all set to host maiden two-day World Apple Conference in June

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir's capital city, Srinagar is all set to host the maiden two days ‘World Apple Conference' – organized by Sarhad, a Pune-based NGO and Sopore Apple Farmer Producer Company (J&K), which aims to further empower and strengthen the apple growers of Jammu and Kashmir. Fayaz Ahmed Malik, Director of event – who is also a president of Asia's second largest Fruit Mandi, Sopore said, that they are organizing the two-day conference on June 24 & 25 this year scheduled at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Center (SKICC), Srinagar. Malik said that eminent personalities will grace the event with their presence along with experts from various fields especially from agriculture and horticulture sectors. “The event aims to empower and strengthen the apple growers of Jammu and Kashmir who have been facing huge losses due to unprecedented and untimely fall in prices of their produce over the past several years”, he said. Malik also said, that the apple season this year fetched prices below expectations leading to losses for farmers across the Jammu and Kashmir, in a bid to provide a platform to farmers to mitigate the issues faced by them, moreover the conference would help to provide sustainable solutions to issues those faced by the people affiliated with the industry. Similarly, Chairman Sopore Apple Producer Company (J&K), Adil Malik said, that the conference would mainly focus on the ‘Apple Tourism' – the valley shall be opened for tourists from all parts of the world where they get to interact with apple farmers, live on the farms, experience the lifestyle. “We propose to let tourists across India and around the world experience the orchard life, which would not only generate additional tourism revenue for the state and incomes for the farmers but could attract more investment as the tourism progresses”, Adil said. Adil added that the potential solutions to the issues like wastage of crop both premature and post harvesting is only to strengthen the highway transport and logistics in the form of better roadways and highways, which could help mitigate the problem of produce reaching the markets on time. Meanwhile, to make the event successful, the organizers have appealed to the people affiliated with the Apple industry to join and participate in thought-provoking discussions, engaging workshops and networking opportunities with the professionals of Apple industry.