SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has been formally identified as an apple production cluster under the Centre’s Operation Greens programme, with Baramulla, Shopian, Kupwara, Anantnag, Kulgam, Badgam and Pulwama named as the cluster districts, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries told the Lok Sabha on December 11, 2025.
Operation Greens is implemented across all States and Union Territories to strengthen value chains for selected fruits, vegetables and shrimp; production clusters were identified in consultation with State horticulture departments and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The ministry’s Lok Sabha reply lists Jammu and Kashmir among the apple clusters and sets out the national scheme framework and recent project approvals.
The Centre told Parliament that 35 Operation Greens projects were approved in the last three years, with a total project cost of about Rs 1,595.79 crore. Andhra Pradesh accounted for 14 of those approvals, representing the largest share of approvals by State in that period. The ministry also provided details of individual approved projects in other States and their processing and preservation capacities.
On financing, the ministry said cumulative funds of Rs 573.62 crore were allocated to Operation Greens between 2022–23 and 2025–26, of which Rs 365.78 crore had been released and utilised up to 30 November 2025. Annual allocations were: Rs 74.49 crore (2022–23), Rs 160.36 crore (2023–24), Rs 161.41 crore (2024–25) and Rs 177.36 crore (2025–26, so far).
The Lok Sabha annexures give project-level detail for Andhra Pradesh — illustrating the kind of support the scheme provides. Andhra Pradesh projects approved during the period carry a combined project cost of about Rs 920.42 crore, approved grant assistance of Rs 203.66 crore and grant releases totalling about Rs 85.37 crore; the State’s approved projects together report preservation and processing capacity running into several lakh tonnes and tens of thousands of farmers listed as beneficiaries.
The ministry emphasised that Operation Greens is demand driven and seeks to build cold chains, preservation and processing infrastructure to reduce post-harvest losses, improve farmer incomes and create employment. The scheme targets identified production clusters — apples in Jammu and Kashmir among them — to channel investment into aggregation, value addition and market linkages.
