Srinagar, Oct. 10 -- Promising to acquire 25 lakh metric tons (MT) of apple from the farmers of Kashmir, the central government run National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) has procured only 15601.50 MTs of apple from the farmers of Kashmir during the past two years.

"Instead of reassuring the farmers, the scheme has hung them round. Their payments were withheld for prolonged periods of time," sources say.

"The procurement exercise has ended up as a money losing venture. Rs 40 crores have been lost under the scheme impaired by bureaucratic intricacies and wild corruption," they added.

Jammu and Kashmir is supposed to bear Rs 20 crore as its share of the loss. An agreement had been reached by the Unio...