High Growth Path of Horticulture Crops in J&K

By Mohammad Hanief

A vast natural resource base has enabled Jammu and Kashmir to develop land for cultivating major horticulture crops including apples, apricots, cherries, pears, plums, citrus, litchi, papaya, mulberry, pomegranate, guava, almonds, saffron, tulips, and walnuts. The diverse climatic conditions, fertile soil, sub-tropical, semi-temperate, temperate, and arid climate zones offer a wide scope for the cultivation and production of a large variety of exotic fruits, vegetables, aromatic plants, spices, and flowers. 

Horticulture and its special branch floriculture play a vital role in the economic development of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. A vast natural resource base has enabled the union territory to develop land for cultivating major horticulture crops including apples, apricots, cherries, pears, plums, citrus, litchi, papaya, mulberry, pomegranate, guava, almonds, saffron, tulips, and walnuts. The diverse climatic conditions, fertile soil, sub-tropical, semi-temperate, temperate, and arid climate zones offer a wide scope for the cultivation and production of a large variety of exotic fruits, vegetables, aromatic plants, spices, and flowers.

Jammu and Kashmir, particularly the Kashmir valley, has been rightly described as the ‘land of fruits’ as well as the ‘fruit bowl’ of Northern India. Horticulture is an important contributor to SGDP with a share of about 9.5 percent.

The growth graph of the horticulture sector in J&K has shown a tremendous spike with 10,000 metric tonnes of production in 1950 to 25 lakh metric tonnes of production in 2020. J&K has been declared an Agri Export Zone for apples and walnuts. Seventy percent of the total apple production and 90 percent of dry fruit production in the country comes from J&K.

The untapped potential of Jammu and Kashmir’s horticulture and floriculture sector can be conservatively put at Rs. 320 billion (US$ 4.3 billion). The share of the sector can increase from current levels of around 6-7 percent to as high as 20-23 percent over a span of ten years.

The variety of horticultural products of the union territory has earned world-wide fame because of its good quality and taste. The fruit crops grown in Jammu and Kashmir are apple, almonds, walnuts, pears, cherries and apricots in temperate areas and mango, citrus, litchi, papaya, guava etc. in subtropical areas. Saffron cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir is unique in the world.

The Horticulture sector plays an important role in the union teritorry and contributes significantly to the economy and is a source of livelihood for 33 lac population. About seven lakh families are directly or indirectly involved and depend on the horticulture sector.

Jammu and Kashmir has been declared as Agri Export Zone for Apples and Walnut. Horticulture is an important contributor to SGDP. The production of 1.83 MTs in 1972-73 has risen to the level of 24.94 LMTs with turnover of Rs. 6000.00 crore approximately during 2015-16. The Horticulture sector also provides jobs to other related trades such as fertilizer, pesticides, Agriculture machinery, traders and processing of fruits, etc.. 

Horticulture development is one of the thrust areas and a number of programmes are being implemented, resulting in the generation of higher incomes in the rural areas, thereby improving the quality of life in villages.

Presently a total of 332704 hectares of land are under horticulture in Jammu and Kashmir with 214162 hectares in Kashmir and 118542 in Jammu region. Of this 164141 hectares are under apple cultivation alone. The fruit crops grown in the UT are Apple, Pear, cherry, walnut, almond, chestnut, strawberry, stone fruits and grapes etc in temperate areas and Mango, citrus, guava, litchi, berries, anola, grapes, orange etc in subtropical areas. 

Besides, medicinal and aromatic plants floriculture, mushroom, plantation crops and vegetables are cultivated in the UT. Apart from this, well known spices like Saffron and Black Zeera are also cultivated in some pockets in the UT. Apple the major fruit crop of the UT is more concentrated in the districts of Kashmir region with a meager share also coming out from the temperate areas of Jammu region.

The Horticulture sector provides jobs to other related trades such as fertilizer, pesticides, agriculture machinery, traders and processing of fruits etc. Horticulture products have grown steadily to become the largest category of agricultural trade. Horticulture has emerged to play a vital role in providing food security globally. During the past few years, demand for high value and low volume horticulture crops has been showing much faster growth than demand for food grains.

Market development scheme with all facilities like finance, communication, more storage facilities and pack houses will lead farmers to increase in production which will result in increase in productivity and profitability in horticulture.

The Horticulture Department Kashmir is planning to enhance cold storage facilities from 2.06 lakh MT to 5 lakh MT in the coming years aimed to counter the post-harvest losses and financial difficulties for apple growers. Over the years the department has been working to improve the cold storage facilities that are aimed to felicitate the farmers and save the fruit crop to gain good profit in the market.

Annually Kashmir produces over 20 lakh MT of apple and in some years touches 25 lakh MT. The 2017 Economic Survey in J&K had said that half of Kashmir’s population is directly or indirectly dependent on the apple industry and over 3.5 lakh hectares are under apple cultivation.

Horticulture is the backbone of the economy of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir contributing nearly Rs 5000/- Crore to our economy, as per an estimate over 07 lac families are directly or indirectly engaged in pursuits connected with the Horticulture sector. So it is one of the sectors, which contribute significantly, in employment generation and add nearly 9% to the Gross State Domestic Product.         

During the first few five year plans, priority was assigned to achieve self sufficiency in food grains production. Over the years, horticulture emerged as an important and growing sub-sector of agriculture, offering a wide range of choices to the farmers for crop diversification. It also provides ample opportunities for sustaining a large number of agro industries which generate substantial employment opportunities.  With agriculture and allied sectors finding alternate ways of increasing productivity of crops, horticulture as a sub-sector, is a revelation, showing remarkable signs of progress in the state.

Many schemes have been implemented with the focus on increasing the productivity of crops, soil health, and introduction of high-yield varieties, and many more. Also, initiatives have been taken to educate the farmers about the same. All these efforts have resulted in the increased area and production of fruits along with the creation of jobs direct and indirect.

In order to achieve the spectacular growth, it is very important that a policy environment must be kept favorable to attract investment, promote high-value crop cultivation (suitable to high altitudes) but also enable climate-resilient agriculture practices.

One thing which is most important is the participation of the local population to enable knowledge retention, fair sharing of economic development, and the emergence of J&K as a sought-after destination for horticulture and floriculture business.

Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer 

• The author can be mailed at [email protected] – X (Twitter): @haniefmha

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