Panjab Agrees to Local Fruits as part of Midday Meals

In a change of decision, the Panjab government has asked the School Education Department to introduce any seasonal fruit instead of providing only bananas in the mid-day meal. (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 3, Story 5). Schools located in south Panjab can go in for kinnow, which is available at an affordable price in the Abohar area. Pathankot schools can opt for litchi while those in Hoshiarpur can give guavas. They have also been asked to consider berries for the Malwa region and mangoes for schools in the Shivalik foothills. This has elated the kinnow growers who suffered a steep fall in fruit prices this season. Farmers in Abohar, cultivating kinnow on 34,000 hectares out of Panjab's total 47,000 hectares, staged a protest on 9 Feb to express their dissatisfaction with Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation's (PAIC) procurement methods. Panjab Agro relies on five major cultivators for its procurement. This year 1,100 metric tons of the total 4,230 metric tonnes of citrus fruit was sourced from the kinnow orchards spanning 74 acres owned by SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal. Jagnoor Singh Grewal, PAIC's additional managing director, said, ‘Kinnows are graded into A, B, C, and D categories based on quality. Once we make a purchase, we need to buy the entire stock. The selection of orchards is based on quality, and preference is always given to small farmers. At the same time, 3-4 large farmers are essential for the commercial viability of the processing project.’ Farmers who could still not sell have been laying them on roads and crushing them with their tractors.