Weather vagaries cause 50% loss to cherry production in Kashmir

Cherry farmers in Kashmir, the country’s highest cherry-producing province, have suffered heavy losses due to above-normal rainfall and hail storms in May and June this year.

Some of the cherry orchard owners claim that they have lost over 50 per cent of their harvest due to weather vagaries. Cherry is considered the first fruit of the year as most of the other fruits are harvested in the autumn season. The cherry season begins in the second week of May and lasts till the first week of July.

Its growth provides a mid-year economic relief to the orchardists and labourers when all the means of income from the horticulture sector are shut since most other fruits are harvested in the autumn season. Varieties of cherry grown in Kashmir include Mishri, Dabal, Siya, Awal-number, Italy, Jadi and Makhmali.

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However, excessive rains and hailstorms in May and early June this year damaged the crop causing huge losses to the growers. “The crop has suffered damage due to heavy rains and hailstorms. I managed to retrieve only 30 per cent of my total cherry production that I was expecting,” said Abdul Majeed, a grower from south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

He said while the government officials may label it a ‘bumper cherry season’, 50 per cent of the entire production of farmers like him has been damaged this year.

Kashmir Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association president Bashir Ahmad Bashir said they were hoping for good produce this year. “But the bad weather caused scab (a common fungal disease that blotches fruits like apples and pears). Cherry production was affected by 75 per cent,” he said.

However, Mohammad Amin Bhat, from the Directorate of Horticulture, Kashmir said that the rainfall and lower temperature would not impact the overall fruit production but would certainly affect the quality.

Cherry is produced on about 1,100 hectares of land in Kashmir and during 2021-2022 more than 8,100 metric tonnes of the fruit was produced. Apart from Kashmir, cherry is produced in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.

Shopian in south Kashmir and Ganderbal and Srinagar in central Kashmir are the biggest producers of cherry in Kashmir. After the induction of high-density cherry varieties, the fruit is being produced almost in all districts.