Kashmir’s apple harvest this year was meant to be a season of recovery. The orchards of Shopian, Sopore, Baramulla, and Pulwama had yielded a bumper crop, promising long-awaited relief to thousands of growers after years of economic uncertainty. Instead, the valley has been plunged into one of its worst agricultural crises in recent memory. Floods, highway blockades, and policy gaps have combined to push a billion-dollar industry to the brink, with losses already soaring into thousands of crores.
At the heart of the crisis lies Kashmir’s dangerous dependence on a single fragile road—the Srinagar-Jammu highway. When monsoon floods and landslides snapped this lifeline in late August, truckloads of perishable apples were stranded for weeks. The result was devastating: rotting fruit, collapsing market confidence, and orchardists watching helplessly as their year’s hard work turned into waste. The government’s emergency response—a cargo parcel train from Nowgam—was too little, too late, carrying only a fraction of the produce stuck in limbo.
The problem, however, runs deeper than weather and blocked roads. Limited cold storage facilities, lack of crop insurance, and inadequate logistical infrastructure have left growers perennially vulnerable. This year’s disaster only amplified these structural weaknesses, laying bare how fragile Kashmir’s economic backbone truly is. With over 3.5 million people linked to horticulture, the ripple effects extend far beyond orchards—impacting packaging workers, transporters, traders, and, most significantly, the valley’s restless youth.
Kashmir already faces an alarming unemployment rate of 17.4 percent. For the thousands of educated young people entering the job market each year, horticulture remains one of the few viable economic anchors. But when even this lifeline falters, it deepens despair and accelerates migration from rural areas. The loss of faith in farming risks eroding both livelihood security and cultural identity.
This moment, therefore, calls for more than temporary fixes. Kashmir needs an urgent systemic overhaul: all-weather connectivity through alternative highways and rail corridors, investment in modern cold chains, crop insurance to cushion growers against shocks, and policy reforms that shield local produce from price crashes and import pressures. Without such measures, the valley’s apple economy will continue lurching from crisis to crisis, each one eroding trust in both governance and agriculture.
Kashmir’s apple has long been a symbol of resilience. But resilience alone cannot sustain an industry forever. If policymakers do not act decisively, the fruit that once defined the valley’s prosperity may instead become the emblem of its decline.
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