The Hindu Business Line : ‘Leh and Kargil have great trade and employment potential’

There must be consistent efforts to develop entrepreneurship in the Leh/Kargil region, that may be considered peripheral or remote, but is strategically very important for India.

MR JAIRAM RAMESH, MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMERCE

G. Srinivasan

Leh and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir, with their magnificent mountains and idyllic ambience, no doubt, offer unlimited possibilities for tourists if the right infrastructure is put in place. In a nation with a one-billion-plus population, these two districts in one of the country’s remotest corners, with a combined population of around two lakhs, might not be demographically significant but are strategically very important.

To see how economic activities in these two districts can be given the right focus so that people in the far-flung regions have a sense of participation and involvement with the rest of the country, the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, visited these places on August 25 and 26.

At an interactive session organised by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) in Leh and Kargil, the thrust was on the local products widely grown in these places, such as seabuckthorn in Leh, and apricot in Kargil.

No doubt, the most direct function of trade is to earn dollars and export to pay for imports. In India’s development paradigm and in consonance with the ruling dispensation’s avowed focus on employment creation through purposeful economic activities for the poor and the deprived sections, the remit of trade is also to generate employment.

Added to these important functions is its role in bringing remote regions into the mainstream of economic activities.

Seabuckthorn

Looked at from this perspective, APEDA’s half-day interaction in Ladakh on August 23 was a follow-up interactive session presided over by Mr Ramesh on seabuckthorn of a one-day workshop held on August 7. Seabuckthorn is a dense shrub grown wildly throughout Ladakh.

Endowed with tremendous medicinal properties, each part of the plant — the bark, leaves or fruit — offers value to the cultivator, while its oil is a high-value product with multiple applications in cosmetic and skin care products industry.

It could also provide fuel and the leaves of the plant are used in making green tea — rich in flavonoids and antioxidants, while the nutrient-rich fruit can be converted into soft drinks, jams and squashes.

Production of sea-buckthorn in Leh is estimated at 12,000 tonnes, only five per cent of the produce is being harvested currently with the rest going waste for want of pre and post-harvest technology.

Hence, there is a need to devise a package of incentives for making best use of the wild fruit as the extant method of harvesting damages the berry content and the shrub.

Besides, the growers are not organised and there is a need for organising entrepreneurship awareness, development and orientation programmes for those associated with the cultivation, harvesting, processing and marketing of seabuckthorn in Ladakh.

Mr Ramesh, during his visit to Leh and Kargil, took interest in exploring avenues to provide assistance to growers of seabuckthorn and apricot and to develop food processing industries in these places with help from the Centre and the State governments and the local Hill Area Development Councils.

He shared some of his ideas on the matter with Business Line. Here are some excerpts from his interview: “This is an effort to develop entrepreneurship in a region that may be considered peripheral or remote but that is strate gically very important for India. Leh is India’s largest district but has the lowest density of population.

Infrastructure

“Within Jammu and Kashmir, the focus has largely been on the Kashmir Valley, and Jammu and Ladakh have not really been at the centre of things.

Ever since the Autonomous Hill Development Council was set up in 1995 for Ladakh and Kargil, there has been a transformation because the local council has the final word on capital expenditure worth almost Rs 70 crore (last year) in both Leh and Kargil, without them having to get any further approval from the State government or the Centre. That is a big amount for building bridges, roads, education and health.

“My idea of coming here is as part of my efforts at using trade as an instrument of developing backward regions, bringing peace and prosperity to troubled regions. I have been focussing on the North East, and Jammu and Kashmir, and within J&K, on Ladakh, which is not a troubled region but a remote region rich in natural resources.

“Pashmina comes from Leh and it is unfortunate that all the value addition to the pashmina fibre takes place outside — in Kashmir, Delhi and elsewhere — with virtually no value addition here. So one major area is how do we improve the value addition for pashmina, which comes from a goat that is endemic to this region.

“Second, is food processing. Seabuckthorn, which is very rich in the Leh region, is nutritionally a very healthy berry that grows wild here. In other countries, particularly China, it is being used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

“We grow about 11,000 tonnes but most of it is lost due to lack of pre- and post-harvest best practices. We have to create a value-added market for the berry and create a big market presence for it.

“The other area is apricot, particularly in Kargil. We figure nowhere in the world ranking and have a long way to go as we lag behind Turkey and Russia, which are better than us. As it is a very important item for empowering the local people, we have to organise farmers, the system of cultivation, collection, processing, packaging and marketing, taking an integrated approach.

“APEDA has to extend all financial and technical assistance to develop apricot production in Kargil in the next five years in a big way and to augment seabuckthorn production in Leh for the benefit of the local people in these far-flung areas.”

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