“We are waiting all year for this season, but it was a waste. £2.5 lakh last year my orchard attracted only £This time 50 000, ”says a 42 -year -old man, because in the air there is a pungent smell of disintegration.
The long-term closure of the National Motorway Srinagar-Jammu, the only road connection of the valley to the rest of India, let the fruit growing stuck with its crop.
With cutting off transport from heavy rainfall 25th August damaged sections of the road are now forced to choose between leaving apples on trees where they risk falling and rot, or reap them only to follow the rot of the fruit in trucks trapped along the highway.
Kashmir produces about 80% of Indian apples and the industry has already suffered losses over via over £1,000 crore – a figure that continues to rising and threatening the livelihood of thousands through the valley.
Extensive damage
Among the 7,000 villagers involved in Apple agriculture in the village of Nanwai, Marham, there is no only person who has escaped losses. “I’ve never seen sets dotted with spoiled fruit or growers crying between trees like I’m this season.”
Through the valley, the scene is gloomy, with the faces of grown despair, the boxes standing empty and the orchards of upsetting apples. Farmers are helplessly watching the season slip away, their hopes have interrupted with infrastructure, which could not connect them to the market.
September, once the most promising month of the year, became a significant reminder of their vulnerability to the logistics narrow place.
The paintings of the decaying apples spread widely on the social media and emphasize the crisis that forced the fruit markets to close and leave thousands of families for whom the gardening of the local economy is and faces significant losses.
In the track, 40 kilometers from Srinagar, Suhail Ahmad Sheikh stands under his apple and watches the fruit falling and rotting on the ground. “The harvest is ready, but no trader is willing to buy,” he says.
In previous years, bruised apples were also collected by load carriers and sold cheaply on local markets. This time, with blocked traffic roads and buyers are missing, the crop is left to crumble, which is a sad reminder of how fragile living is when one road holds the fate of the whole season.
Sheikh, covered with 20 channels, estimates that almost 80% of his crop has died this season.
Explains that its annual cost of inputs – £1.5 Lakh on sprays, pesticides and fertilizers, plus another £50,000 for work – maybe not even renewed this year. “I am afraid that this year the entry costs do not even have to get to growers,” he says, while gesturing to the apples rotting on the ground.
A 45 -year -old man points out the lack of juice processing and a cold storage device in cashmere as a critical vulnerability. “If units for juice processing were available, at least fallen fruit could be used to give some relief to farmers. Similarly, sufficient cold storage devices could keep apples and allow them to send a 270 km highway after 270 km.”
Storage with a controlled atmosphere (CA) helps to extend the life of the production of spoiling of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, humidity and temperature. While frozen storage can maintain many food products for years, fresh objects such as apples can not be stored under such conditions. For apples, the ideal storage temperature is maintained between 0 ° C and 3 ° C.
Jammu and Kashmir have only 85 cooling storage units with a combined capacity of 341,000 metric tons, which is sufficient for the annual Apple production in the region.
Nanwai says that the unsuccessful season has left unpaid loans, disrupted children’s education and pushed households into financial uncertainty. “We are six family members and apples are our main source of income. Now that the season ends with a disaster, we stare at the bleak future.”
Fragile supply chain
In the village of Chek in Awantipora in the Kashmir district in the Pulwama Sajad Ahmad District, Dar Rues a decision that cost him. Srinagar-Jammu motorway was crippled before landslides and cloudburst, the merchant offered him £37 Lakh for apples on its 20-channel orchard, home 2,800 trees. The gift has reached out £40 Lakh.
But as the highway remained closed weeks, prices collapsed and fruit began to decompose. “Now I had to sell the whole production just for.” £21,85 lakh, against the entry costs almost £13 Lakh, ”says a 42 -year -old man whose loss captures the uncertainty of Kashmir’s apple trade.
The authorities briefly considered redirecting trucks via Mugal Road, but its narrow and treacherous terrain could not handle heavy vehicles. Even Indian railways introduced special mail order trains to transport apples to Delhi, yet they could only carry a fraction of harvesting.
“Train transport by train is not a practical solution. Railway stations are far from fruit markets, add additional costs and reduce the profits of growers,” says Mohammad Ashraf Wani, President of Mega Fruit Mandi in Shopian.
Inside mega fruit mandi in Shopian stands hundreds of trucks idle, already charged with apple production and waiting for a fully open highway. With the repository they suffocate and trucks full, traders refuse to receive a new crop, so growers do not leave without buyers.
The usual buzzing of fruit mandi is missing this season, with Apple cartons that would usually be sold £700-1 200 now loading £300-700. Daily arrivals of 200 000–250 000 cartons create excessive offers, increase prices further and deepen losses for growers.
All Fruit Mandis in Kashmir, including Shopian Mandi, remained closed for two days to protest against the stopping of fruit trucks on the highway.
At a time when the motorway was partially reopened for heavy vehicles, many trucks have reached markets with spoiled fruit, which has led to a significant financial loss for growers.
“When the road reopened after three weeks, thousands of stuck trucks reached the markets at once. Apples that have very short shelf life, either spoiled or lost quality, triggered losses across the supplier chain,” says Bashir Ahmad Basheer, chairman of Kashmir valley.
Basheer estimates that the industry has already lost between them £1,000 crore and £1200 crore. When Mandis tried to clean the pending items, merchants stopped receiving new growers’ arrivals.
“In the normal season, there are 1,000-1,500 Apple cars from Srinagar to Delhi a day. This year the flow has been disturbed and shipping fees increased from £70 on 16 kg box on £250, location of huge tension on the grower. Alternative routes such as Mughal Road are either unsuitable for heavy vehicles or not virtually virtually virtually, ”he adds.
The sudden disturbance of Apple’s stock from Kashmir forced traders across the country to look for alternative sources, while growers in the valley watch their crop lose value, with prices to fall almost 40%.
For example, Sheikh says 18 kg of a box of apples that were sold for £1 000-1 200 last September is now just bringing £700-800. Similarly, 20 kg box of apples with high density that was sold £1,500-1 800 in August 2024, this year was sold only for £800.
In Sopore, about 45 km from Srinagar and home to the largest Asian fruit market, traders ask growers to stop supplies as a lack of trucks and disrupt the transport chain.
“We cannot accept fresh apples with short lifespan when traffic is limited to a single lane, allowing only a few trucks to move on the highway. Apples on the market would only lead to beaching, because abundant crop has already reached the market, but there is no way to carry it,” Sopore, often called “Kashmir”.
Permanent problem
Ejaz Ayoub, an economist based in Srinagar, challenges why the highways in the region are repeatedly affected during the harvest period at the top, noticing the pattern that has persisted over the years. “I remarked that every season of harvest, highway faced disturbances. In 2022, for example, the fruit grower even set fire to the boxes of freshly harvested apples to protest,” he recalls.
Ayoub emphasizes economic shares and says that a significant number of households of Kashmir relies on Apple agriculture, one of the largest sources of income in the region. “Agriculture and allied sectors, including apples, contribute to our economy 19.72%, while tourism is only 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). ”
The authorities now claim that more than 137,000 metric tons of fresh fruit have moved from the valley over the last 10 days. However, growers say that shipments are a decrease in the ocean, nowhere close enough to compensate for assembly losses in this harvest season.
According to Basheer, the months of hard work in orchards have only brought losses, which causes growers to be necessary to survive the wound.
Kashmir gives apples to fruit markets throughout India, including Delhi, Bombje, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kolkata, as well as international markets in West and Southeast Asia.
Basheer points out that growers and traders are more interested in the future than the present and fear that the highway will continue to face disruption of cloudbursts, landslide and mud during the tip period.
“The question is what the government plans to do to alleviate such risks and prevent recurring losses for the Apple branch, which remains the backbone of Kashmir’s economy.”
(Tagstotranslate) Kashmir apples
