Apple orchards are taking over the paddy fields of Kashmir. There’s promise and a fear.
At Mohanpora hamlet, 15 km from Shopian town, a 52-year-old farmer Bashir Ahmad Dar is working hard at his apple orchard spread over 25 kanals (0.8 acre equals 1 kanal) with his wife, son and two daughters. They are busy selecting the best apples and packing them in crates to be sent to various states. Bashir recalls Mohanpora was once all agriculture land, where the farmers used to grow paddy. That began to change in the 1980s, with more and more farmers turning their rice fields into apple orchards.
In 2014-15, rice production was pegged at 3.98 metric tonne (MT) per hectare, while last year’s apple production was 11.65 MT per hectare. With high-density plantation, apple production is expected to go up manifold in the coming years. The apple revolution took off despite the Land Revenue Act and the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act prohibiting change of land use from agriculture to residential or horticultural. In the revenue records, the land in Mohanpora continues to be paddy land. As the records have not been updated, the figures on land usage, cultivation and food deficit vary from department to department. In spite of variations in the records, though, the disappearance of paddy lands is visible in almost all districts of Kashmir division (one of the three administrative regions in Jammu and Kashmir), except Budgam.
This story is from the October 09, 2017 edition of Outlook.
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This story is from the October 09, 2017 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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