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File picture: A farm worker plucks apples in an orchard in Budgam district of Central Kashmir
| Photo Credit:
S. Irfan
A sudden hailstorm on June 2 battered apple and cherry orchards across more than a dozen fruit-rich villages in Kashmir, dashing the hopes of thousands of farmers.
Abdul Gani, a well-heeled apple grower from Zainapora in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, about 60 km from Srinagar, was among the worst hit. His orchards, laden with early-season apples and ripe cherries, were pounded by chickpea-sized hailstones for nearly 20 to 25 minutes.
“I have never seen such a destructive storm. All our hard work was wiped out in seconds. The hailstones left behind a trail of devastation,” said Gani. His family had been counting on the harvest to fund his daughter’s wedding next month, but the storm has upended those plans.
Following the storm, officials from the Revenue and Horticulture Departments surveyed the affected areas to assess damage and initiate a compensation process.
Weeks later, Gani, like many others, received just ₹2,900 as compensation. “I lost produce worth ₹25 to ₹30 lakh. This amount doesn’t come anywhere close to covering the damage,” said Gani.
Farmers said the authorities provided compensation ranging between ₹850 and ₹1,000 per kanal — far too little to cover even 10 per cent of their input costs.
“It barely scratches the surface of what we have lost,” said Mohammad Shafi, another farmer from the village.
In Shopian, over 85 per cent of the population depends on apple farming. “Almost all affected farmers rely on orchards for their livelihood and have no other source of income,” Shafi added.
Javed Ahmad Dar, Minister for Agriculture, told businessline that compensation was being disbursed by district commissioners from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF). “Teams comprising Revenue and Horticulture officials conducted spot verifications and submitted their reports to the DCs,” Dar said.
Aijaz Ahmad Mir, former MLA from Zainapora constituency, has called for inclusion of apple and cherry crops under the crop insurance scheme to protect the region’s horticulture-driven economy from natural disasters.
“Compensation of a few hundred rupees cannot even begin to cover the massive losses farmers incur during natural calamities,” Mir told businessline.
Crop Insurance Gaps
Farmers in the region remain vulnerable in the absence of a comprehensive crop insurance scheme. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), launched in 2016 to support farmers against natural calamities, is yet to be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir.
Tenders were issued multiple times inviting insurance companies to implement the scheme in the horticulture sector, but the response remained poor.
Minister Dar said the government has once again floated tenders for a weather-based crop insurance plan. “We hope to roll out the scheme by October,” he said.
Published on July 22, 2025
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