Upsetting The Apple Cart

Security restrictions and militant threats make it a bitter harvest for the Valley’s apple trade

- Moazum Mohammad

Ghulam Mohammad Mir does not recall ever having to sit idle in the apple harvesting season, which begins mid-August in the Kashmir Valley. The 55-year-old farmer from Pattan in north Kashmir says his 19 acre orchard generates more than 25,000 boxes of apples a year for supply to the rest of the country. Not this time. Apple-growers like Mir say the heightened security restrictions in the Valley since the abrogation of special status under Article 370 have brought in logistical uncertainties and taken a heavy toll on their business.

“It’s a miracle that I am at home in September,” says Mir, sitting in the verandah of his two-storey house, surrounded by giant walnut trees. “We lose track of time during the harvest season. This time, we have lost all hope of doing business and have stopped harvesting.” The situation is just as grim in other parts of the Valley. Its three largest mandis—in apple bowl Shopian, Parimpora and Sopore—which serve as the main collection centres for the fruit, are deserted. Shops remain shuttered and traders say most labourers are either not reporting to work or, being migrant, have fled the state.