Farmers bear brunt of harsh season

Shopian, Oct 7: As the apple harvest season draws to a close in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, many orchard owners are grappling with severe losses.

Some are so disheartened that they almost chose not to pick the fruit this year.

The crisis traces back to a sudden and intense hailstorm that swept through several villages of the district in June, pelting apple orchards with chickpea-sized hailstones and causing widespread damage.

Scores of villages, including Hushanpora, Wadipora, Handew, and Nagbal in the Imam Sahab belt, were among the worst hit.

“Almost the entire crop was ruined before it could mature,” said Rizwan Ahmad, a farmer from Wadipora. “We almost harvested nothing as the fruit was badly damaged.”

For hundreds of families in the area, apple farming is the primary source of livelihood.

Each season, after months of hard labour, farmers are able to harvest their produce, which sustains their income for the rest of the year.

However, this season, hopes were dashed long before the first fruit ripened.

Farmers say the hailstorm bruised and scarred the developing apples, leaving them unsellable in wholesale mandis.

“The fruit that survived was downgraded to C-grade,” said another grower from Hushanpora. “The prices are so low that it’s not worth the cost of picking and transporting it.”

C-grade apples often fetch less than half the price of top-grade produce, making it nearly impossible for farmers to recover even their production costs.

Many orchardists say they have invested heavily in pesticides, fertilisers, and labour this year, but the returns will not even cover their expenses.

Shopian, known as the apple bowl of Kashmir, contributes significantly to J&K’s horticulture sector, which is valued at thousands of crores of rupees annually.

Despite suffering heavy losses, some affected farmers complained that they received either little or no assistance so far.

“We are left to fend for ourselves. The government should have at least assessed the damage in a proper way and offered adequate compensation,” said Nazir Ahmad, an affected farmer.