Economic development of horticulture sector in J&K and future strategies :

J&K Union Territory, particularly the valley of Kashmir has been rightly described as the ‘land of fruits’ as well as the ‘fruit bowl’ of Northern India. Kashmir is the land of bewitching beauty with exotic fruits, and flowers. Horticulture sector is the backbone of J&K’s economy. Horticulture plays a very important role for the economic development of J&K and contributes significantly to the UT’s economy. In Jammu and Kashmir horticulture is a source of livelihood for about 33 lakh people and about seven lakh families are directly or indirectly involved and depend on the horticulture sector. Horticulture is the important contributor to SGDP with the share of about 9.5%.The growth graph of horticulture sector in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a tremendous spike with 10000 Metric Tonnes of production in 1950 to 25 lakh Metric Tonnes of production in 2020 with turnover of Rs.8000 crore approximately.

Crops and their production :

Jammu and Kashmir UT has been declared as Agri Export Zone for apples and walnut. Seventy percent of the total apple production and ninety percent of dry fruit production in the country comes from J&K. 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 meagre share also coming out from the temperate areas of Jammu region. Among the districts of Kashmir region, Baramulla stands front runner both in terms of area(25231 hectares)as well as production of the apple(404089 MTS) followed by Kupwara and Shopian districts. Pear, the next major fresh fruit crop is grown almost throughout whole UT, however the major share of the production base comes from the temperate Kashmir region where some good cultivars of the crop are grown with longer shelf life. Apricot crop is grown almost in entire temperate areas of the UT covering all the regions.

The other temperate fruits like peach, plum and cherry are grown more in Kashmir region. On the other hand, Mango, citrus, guava, litchi, berries, anola, grapes and orange are exclusively grown in subtropical areas of Jammu region. The growing fruit industry has changed the social and economic status of our rural Kashmir and helped its people in reshaping their economy to greater extent. The vibrant fruit industry of Kashmir holds key to remedying the economic ills as well as containing widespread joblessness in the UT. 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.

Centre and UT Initiatives :

The available data depicts that both area and production of horticulture crops seems to be increasing simultaneously. The UT and Central government has taken many initiatives towards market intervention such as establishment of fruit mandies, technological support and research extension, provision of support price, awareness options, publicity inputs and cold storage facilities. Department of horticulture provides assistance to the farmers for economic development of horticulture sector in UT under various centrally sponsored schemes as well as capex budget. The department provides incentives for establishment of new orchards, plant protection machinery, horticulture mechanization, protected cultivation, pollination support, pack houses, hi-tech nursery establishment etc. The department lays stress on ultra high density plantation in the UT. With the help of high density plantation technology, 2500-3600 plants are being planted per hectare compared to 250 trees planted presently.  There is potential for increase in productivity of apple from present level of 12 metric tones to 30-40 metric tones per hectare through introduction of high density plantation programme.

Future Strategies :

Keeping in view the immense contribution of this prestigious sector all should work whole heartedly to modernize it. All the barriers in the implementation and adaptation of modern horticulture must be removed. The govt should offer a package of incentives to the growers for improving the quality and volume of production in the UT. There should be better coordination between extension workers to encourage growers to shift to commercial farming for better economic returns. The department should identify areas which have potential for commercial farming which will provide huge economic gains in national and overseas markets. The department should take immediate necessary steps to get certification for declaring walnut, apricots and almonds as produce of organic farming. This will ensure far higher returns than that we are getting today from these fruits. 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 concerned authorities should take immediate steps to ban the import on apples from other countries during on-season to explore our domestic products. Govt. should take necessary steps for the implementation of Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) in horticulture sector because J&K is one of the first three most vulnerable states to climate change impacts in India. The govt on its part should frame and implement farmer friendly policies and the dearth of manpower should be addressed to generate the employment avenues for horticulture students and to make the department more and more vibrant. Government has to come forward and take immediate action against exploitation by middlemen, commission agents and supply of spurious pesticides and fertilizers must be stopped. Also, it becomes obligatory on the part of growers and horticulture agencies to implement fruitful strategies to correct deficiencies in the existing marketing system. The strategies, if implemented properly would prove a gate way to the future prosperity of the industry.