Kashmir's strawberry harvest faces brunt of erratic weather, climate change

Gasso, also known as the Strawberry Village of Kashmir Valley, is located on the outskirts of Srinagar and the families here are busy harvesting strawberries, as it's the first produce of the season in Kashmir region.

But due to the harshweather conditions and climate change, the crop has been affected badly.

Every family of the Gasso area is involved in strawberry farming.

Men and women gather at the break of dawn in their fields to pick strawberries as their shelf life is short.

Many farmers at Gasso village in the Hazratbal area of Srinagar say the crop has been hit due to untimely rainfall this year and has resulted in less overall production.

''This place is called Gasso and is famous as the Strawberry Valley of Kashmir, Every household of this area is involved in Strawberry farming in the area. This year due to erratic weather conditions, we have had the crop hit badly.

"We had a lot of blossoms earlier but due to intense rains, it all got damaged, so the crop was affected. We really need help from the government to tell us what to do to save our crops. We grow everything naturally with organic fertilizer and due to the weather, our harvest has been affected badly,'' said Daniyal Shafi Mir, a strawberry farmer.

Strawberry farming was introduced in Kashmir not too long ago, and given its favourable weather conditions, it has generated employment for locals in the valley.

Tonnes of Strawberry are being produced by the farmers in the valley but this time, the weather has affected production.

The farmers have also been long demanding the cold storage facility for the produce as it has a very short shelf life.

And once the farmers harvest the produce, they have to pack it the same day and send it to the market. The farmers say if they are provided cold storage, they can send these strawberries even to outside UT.

''I want to appeal to the horticulture department that the way they have increased the cold storage facilities for apple growers in south Kashmir has helped, and in comparison, with apples strawberries have no facilities. The strawberries grown in Srinagar don't have a single cold storage facility available, If the shelf life of the fruit is one week, how will this sustain?

"It even rots in normal temperature within a day and I request the government to create a cold storage facility for the strawberry growers in Srinagar. The whole village harvests the strawberry together and imagine it can't be taken together to market and keeping it at home without proper storage rots the fruit and leads to a lot of losses,'' said Aamir Manzoor, a farming expert.

In the last few years, more people have started converting their land into strawberry farms as it's a very profitable crop.