With fruit production in Kashmir static, the Kashmiri growers have asked the state and central government not to acquire horticulture land for any official purposes. They are also not satisfied with recent rent hike by the defence ministry. The growers fear that acquiring of the horticulture land for official purposes will reduce the fruit production in the state. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in India that has around 2.75 lakh hectares of land under the horticulture. The major portion of this land is used for the cultivation of fresh fruits especially apples. President, Kashmir Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, Ghulam Rasool Bhat told Kashmir Times that, "The government should come up with a law for banning the use of horticulture land for any official purpose.' He said that in Western countries, the government has already banned use of horticulture land for any official purposes, he said, adding similar ban should be imposed in Jammu Kashmir as well. "If steps are not taken, time will come when we will lose major portion of our orchards.' He said in the last two decades, the growers have lost thousands of kanals of horticulture land either to Jammu and Kashmir government or to the security forces. He said, "Alone, 11,000 kanals of orchard land is under the Army occupation the land was forcibly taken from the growers soon after the militancy began in Kashmir. The growers who were asking for vacation of their land are now being asked to take rent.' He said that fruit growers are not satisfied with rental hike and maintain that this is the unilateral decision of defence ministry, "It is not satisfactory. It has been fixed without the consultation of horticulture experts,' he said and added, "It should be reviewed after consultation and should be implemented from the day the land has been occupied by the security forces.' He said that defence ministry lured these growers by announcing the rental hike. "We have lost thousands of apple trees to dry spell that continued from 1998 to 2004. Also, the security forces axed all the trees in the orchards soon after they forcibly took them over. Similarly, at different places in the state, government is also acquiring horticulture land for the official purposes,' Bhat said. "The trend needs to be stopped somewhere.' Bhat said the fruit production is already coming down in the state. "This time our fresh and dry fruit production should have been around 25 lakh metric tons. But it is reduced to around 12 to 15 lakhs only,' he said. Horticulture is the Kashmir's biggest trade with one million families directly dependent on it. "Both government and the growers should be made accountable for the horticulture land in the state,' said Mohammad Ayoub Dar, another grower. Not only government, at times some growers are also responsible for selling their orchards for business purposes,' he said.