“Twenty years ago, all this was paddy,” says Nazir Ahmad, a farmer from Qaimoh, a village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, pointing at the rows of apple saplings that now cover his land. Today, much of that landscape has changed. The irrigation channels set up for paddy still exist, running through the fields as they always have. However, the paddy they once fed has given way to apple plantations.
Across Kashmir, farmers are increasingly replacing food crops with horticulture, especially apple orchards, as they seek higher returns amid rising cultivation costs.
For many growers, the calculation is straightforward. Paddy offers modest returns, while apples, particularly high-density plantations, promise significantly higher earnings. The move makes economic sense for individual farmers. However, this is now leading to Kashmir Valley becoming increasingly dependent on outside states for its staple food – rice.
Nisar Ahmed from Kulgam district in Kashmir, used to cultivate paddy on his nine-kanal (0.46 hectares) farmland, which earned him between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000 annually. A few years ago, he converted the land into a high-density apple orchard because he was facing losses. After the shift, Nisar and his family saw a considerable increase in their earnings. “Every season, we earn around Rs 4 lakh...