Overview
- Mehbooba Mufti asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to keep apples out of the interim India–U.S. trade deal or retain at least a 50% import duty to protect growers.
- She also sought strict Minimum Import Price enforcement plus targeted subsidies, easy credit, crop insurance, more Controlled Atmosphere storage, and reliable highway access.
- Mufti argued Kashmiri producers cannot match U.S. growers benefitting from large subsidies and said earlier low‑priced Iranian apples routed via SAFTA had already depressed local prices.
- Omar Abdullah cautioned that the reported trade terms would place Jammu and Kashmir at a competitive disadvantage and urged policy steps to safeguard horticulture.
- Farmers’ groups and hill‑state leaders, including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, called for safeguards such as transport subsidies and price‑stabilisation, while most reports note no formal central response yet.