THE APPLE OF KASHMIR S EYE

More and more farmers in Kashmir are switching from paddy to high-yielding apple varieties from Europe. This is boosting the rural economy and creating jobs, but there are also environmental concerns, reports Peerzada Ashiq

As the mellow winter sun prepares to set, the lengthening shadows turn hazy from the smoke in Nazeer Ahmad Dar’s paddy fields, some 59 km away from Srinagar.

The 52-year-old resident of Anantnag’s Sir Hama village in south Kashmir will soon burn the last of his paddy shoot stocks, spread over the 20 kanals (1.1 hectares) of his farm. Having spent six decades cultivating paddy, the Dars, a family of six, have taken the tough decision to switch crops and await the change in their fortunes.

“My neighbour’s son uprooted expensive and well-nursed traditional apple trees and replaced them with high-density, high-yielding, foreign variety apple trees. I can see how things have improved for them in the last four years. I want to replicate their success story,” Dar says.

The decision wasn’t an easy one to make. For one, the Dars will not grow anything for the next two years, in order to let their paddy field become bone dry, and to reduce the methane content left behind by six decades of paddy cultivation. They are staring at a loss of Rs. 1 lakh per hectare. But the family is ready to trade the temporary loss for larger gains in the near future.

“Taking risks is part of life. I am not very rich. My only source of income is this land. I have saved some money. Now I have put my faith in Allah and in high-yielding apple trees that I will plant two years from now,” Dar says.

🔹Tripling profits

The neighbour who has inspired many farmers like Dar to convert their loss-making paddy fields into profitable apple orchards is 24-year-old Nengroo Muhammad Shahid, a postgraduate in History. His family was the first in this village of 6,000 people to convert paddy fields into high-yielding apple orchards.

“People were shocked to see me uprooting 35- to 40-year-old traditional apple trees. I replaced them with M-9, a dwarf apple rootstock. The M-106, a semi-dwarf planted by my grandfather on just six kanals (0.3 hectares) had doubled our profits. M-9 will triple it,” says Shahid, who owns a car and a three-storey house.

With his new, high-yielding variety, Shahid plucks 1,000 boxes of apples per hectare (20 kg a box), up from the 300-400 boxes that he used to get from the traditional varieties. “The yield on my farm has gone up from 10-12 to 20 metric tonnes,” he says, adding that unlike many others, he will never apply for a government job in Kashmir. “The money the apple business is going to generate in the future will change this place forever.”

Shahid hopes that 33% of his village will switch from paddy to M-9, a variety of apple imported from Europe by the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government two years ago. The State’s Chief Horticulture Officer, Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, says that the first rootstock of high-yielding trees (M-106) was introduced in 2004, and an ultra-density, high-yielding variety was imported in 2016. According to official figures, so far 72 hectares of orchard land have been planted with dwarf varieties of the M-9 rootstock.

Shahid is hopeful of a bumper crop this year, and is planning a complete organic orchard with a dairy, sheep farm, and fish ponds. “In an orchard like this, a vermicomposter will function in an organic manner, with multiple facilities,” he says.

🔹Denting paddy yield

Sir Hama used to be cut off from the rest of the State due to poor road connectivity. But today it reflects the changes taking place across the Valley. With an eye on the potential for orchard tourism, the State government is connecting the village to the Srinagar-Jammu highway through two different routes.

The landscape of agricultural fields is swiftly changing, from swirling paddy fields to stout treelines. Of Sir Hama’s 786.7 hectares of land, 458.2 hectares are already under orchards, which account for 15120.6 million apple trees. The land conversion from paddy to apple has already dented the paddy yield, with growth in rice production tapering off in recent years. The production graph shows only a marginal increase of 0.61 metric tonnes, from 5 lakh in 2008 to 5.61 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in 2012.

But given the changing dietary habits in Kashmir, the fall in rice yield is unlikely to affect the local market. “Earlier, people in Kashmir would consume good quantities of rice three times a day, both in urban and rural pockets. But the introduction of flour, smaller rice portions, and the shift away from rice due to medical reasons has given a cushion to the rice market in Kashmir. In rural areas, farmers still grow enough rice to meet their annual demand,” Bhat says.

In Khiram-Sirhama, which was declared the Valley’s first ‘Apple Model Village’ seven weeks ago, the farmers have gone through some rough times. “The area went through its worst drought in the 1990s and last year, it also saw repeated hailstorms which damaged the traditional apple trees,” says Lubna Aijaz Beg, Horticulture Officer of the Khiram-Sir Hama belt. “But now, at least 100 kanals (5.05 hectares) of paddy field in Sir Hama turn into orchards annually. The place is perfect for apple farming.”

With the introduction of M-9, hailstorms will no more be able to damage the trees. Given their size and the support system these dwarf trees require, the farmers can “easily use hail nets to shield their orchards,” Beg says.

J&K’s Minister for Revenue, Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, Abdul Rehman Veeri, who set up the model village, said the project was aimed at “rejuvenation of old orchards with new varieties.”

The government will provide farm machines such as tractors, sprayers, juice preservation plants, and also train the farmers in grading and packing. “This is going to change the economic profile of Kashmir,” Veeri says.

The Minister’s confidence stems from the unique features of M-9 rootstock varieties such as Super Chief, Red Chief, Red Velox, Gala Redlum, and Golden Reindeer, among others. Unlike the traditional ones such as Delicious and Ambri, whose harvest season are restricted to October and November, M-9 rootstock trees will stretch the harvest season by four months. They will start bearing fruit as early as June and stay till November. “It allows farmers to steadily sell the produce in the market at higher rates, which was not possible with bulk harvests where you only had two months to sell all the produce,” Beg says.

Beg, who joined the horticulture department six years ago, has seen the socioeconomic changes brought about by the introduction of M-106 and M-9 rootstocks. She talks about how farmers now have water pools in many newly constructed mansions in far-off villages such as Khiram. “Pools are yet to become a fad in the urban centres of Kashmir. But with the fillip to the farm economy provided by the ‘apple push’, the Valley is set to see a new dawn,” Beg says.

🔹More trees per hectare

What is sustaining this new-found buoyancy? “Traditional apple trees spread over one hectare of land fetch just 10 to 12 metric tonnes of apple annually. But the high-density ones will fetch 25 metric tonnes,” Beg says. This is possible partly because unlike traditional apple trees, dwarf varieties are planted in a double row, with a gap of just two or three feet between the rows. Traditional apple trees require a gap of 10 to 12 feet between rows for healthy growth.

With more number of trees per hectare, experts expect yields of 80-120 metric tonnes from a hectare in the near future. Moreover, unlike traditional apple trees, where the colour and sweetness of the fruit vary depending on exposure to sunlight and chemical treatment, the M-9 and M-106 varieties will be uniform in colour and in taste, with the same quality maintained in at least 97% of the apples.

The dwarf varieties take two years to bear fruit. They are also less labour-intensive compared to the traditional trees, whose higher foliage cover meant more expenditure on pruning, not to mention more manpower to sprinkle pesticides. The dwarf trees are also easier to maintain given their spread and height, Beg says. The State horticulture department is looking at planting 4,000 high-density apple trees per hectare, against the traditional spread of less than 2,200 trees per hectare.

🔹Jobs from apple

One major benefit from the paddy field conversion and the introduction of high-yielding trees is the creation of new job opportunities. According to State government officials, in 2016-17, Kashmir’s horticulture sector generated 7.71 crore man-days, chiefly in apple fields. Buoyed by this, 2018-19 and 2019-20 are being officially celebrated as ‘apple years’ by the government.

J&K Horticulture Minister Syed Basharat Bukhari foresees the sector becoming a major employment generator. “One hectare of an apple orchard generates almost 400 man-days. Fresh fruit production is 20.75 LMTs and dry fruit production is 2.80 LMTs in the Valley, accounting for about 8% of the State’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). About seven lakh farming families, or 33 lakh individuals, are directly or indirectly dependent on it,” Bukhari says.

With 75,000 hectares brought under high-density apple plantations since 2004, the Valley is headed for some major changes. For the first time in 36 years, a new census is under way to determine the health and fruit-bearing capacity of apple trees.

“We plan to import 9 lakh high-density plants in the next year to cover around 320 hectares of orchard. We will create our own nurseries by importing 3.47 lakh clone rootstocks of imported varieties,” Bukhari says.

Orchard owner Bashir Ahmad Yatoo, a resident of Hitigam village, describes the apple success story thus: “What paddy fields of the entire village would make in profit is equal to the profit earned from just two orchards owned by villagers. Who will waste time on paddy now? We grow enough of it for our needs at home.”

🔹The challenges

The apple success story would have taken off in a big way long ago had it not been for the grim political subplots. The introduction of high-density rootstock was delayed by over a decade after an Indo-Italian project to improve yields by sharing scientific know-how was shelved in 1989. “The situation grew worse in the 1990s as militancy broke out and the Indo-Italian project failed to take off. It was the first big stumbling block for an otherwise perfect success story,” says Bhat.

Apple cultivation first came to Kashmir in the 1930s, when it covered just 12,000 hectares in north Kashmir’s Sopore. Over eight decades, it emerged as a major contributor to Kashmir’s GDP. Today, horticulture, dominated by apple production, is a Rs. 9,000 crore sector for the State, up from Rs. 6,000 crore in 2015.

At the same time, experts also warn that the fast-spreading European varieties may end the apple’s local flavour and colour for all times to come. “The famed Kashmiri varieties of Ambri and Delicious are vanishing from the market. The varsities need to step in to preserve these local varieties,” Bhat says.

According to official figures, of the 2.14 lakh hectares of horticulture land in Kashmir, 1.45 hectares is under apple cultivation. About 1.85 lakh hectares were added in just one year, taking the yield from 11 LMT in 2006 to 17.9 LMT in 2017. Now J&K is the largest apple-producing State in India, accounting for 71% of the national production, officials say. “The time has come to compete with Chinese and European apples in the global market,” adds Beg.

Though production is on an unprecedented upward trend, the Chinese could upset the applecart. “China is seeking a zero import duty policy. Its proposal falls under the ambit of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade pact. The RCEP free trade pact, if done, will eliminate the existing 70% import duty on apples,” says Arjiman Hussian Talib, who runs the Valley’s first agriculture magazine, Ziraat Times.

The large-scale switch from paddy to apple not only involves a shift from water-intensive crop to dry land orchard farming, but is also likely to impact the water-management system in the state. South Kashmir’s major districts — Anantnag (with 33,768 hectares under horticulture), Shopian (26,231 hectares), Kulgam (25,606 hectares) and Pulwama (25,133 hectares) — where the switch is most popular, are located along the Jhelum river and the major streams contributing to it.

Climatologist and consultant on water issues Shakil Romshoo, who heads the Earth Sciences department, Kashmir University, adds a word of caution: “The shift from the high water-intensity paddy crop to low water-intensity orchards is bound to impact the water management within Kashmir and, in the long run, impact the Indus Water Treaty of 1964 between India and Pakistan. It is also likely to lead to more flooding in Srinagar and more water discharge into Pakistan.”

The water retained in the paddy fields, Romshoo says, recharges the groundwater too. The shrinking paddy fields will result in less and less recharge, and thus lower groundwater levels in Kashmir in the future. Kashmir, which witnessed a major flood, the first in 100 years, in 2014, is staring at a grim scenario. Many of the paddy lands located in the Jhelum floodplains acted as a temporary reservoir during the flooding, and slowly released the floodwaters to the river system.

“But the hydrological (flooding) functionality of the paddy lands in the floodplains has been adversely affected due to the conversion of the land system in the Valley. It has made the area and the people living in the floodplains more vulnerable to floods,” says Romshoo.

Experts suggest water regulation. As per the the 1964 Indus Water Treaty, Kashmir is entitled to 1.25 Million Acre Feet (MAF) of water storage under the treaty. “The water requirement for irrigation (accounting for the lion’s share of water consumption) in the Kashmir Valley has drastically come down since the 1980s due to the conversion of paddy lands to other uses. Therefore, the switch to horticulture is in a way benefiting Pakistan as the people of J&K are not able to utilise the full entitlement of water provided for under the treaty,” Romshoo says. “India has to expeditiously set up the required infrastructure for storing the entitled water under the treaty, which currently goes into Pakistan.”

He adds: “Though they are provided for under the treaty, setting up storage facilities would certainly raise concerns across the border as Pakistan has objected to every water infrastructure development proposal on the Indus that has been put up by India in J&K.”

Floods do pose a threat to the current trend of mass conversion to apple cultivation. Bhat, however, believes that the dwarf rootstock will survive them. “Dwarf varieties, unlike traditional ones, have short roots, helping them to avoid the high water table, which is detrimental for apple trees. In 2014, apple crops did survive the flood in many areas.”

As the January sun shines unusually late in the afternoon in Sir Hama, it poses another problem. All the apple varieties require a chilling period in winter to allow the trees to fight insects and pests. In case there is no snow this year, the trees are bound to face problems, as insecticides will then have to be used. The trees’ capacity to battle pests goes down without the chilling period provided by the snowfall. Even the dwarf varieties are not immune to the effects of climate change.

What paddy fields of the entire village would make in profit is equal to the profit earned from just two orchards owned by villagers. Who will waste time on paddy now?

🔹Bashir Ahmad Yatoo

Orchard owner and a resident of Hitigam village

China is seeking a zero import duty policy. Its proposal falls under the ambit of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade pact. If this is done, it will eliminate the existing 70% import duty on apples.

Arjiman Hussian Talib

Editor-in-Chief at Ziraat Times