Climate change is impacting the horticulture industry in North India. In regions like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the apple industry is the backbone of their economies, and this time the farmers are grappling with erratic weather conditions like intense rainfall, less snow, and now sudden rise in temperatures.

Climate change is impacting the horticulture industry in North India. In regions like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the apple industry is the backbone of their economies, and this time the farmers are grappling with erratic weather conditions like intense rainfall, less snow, and now sudden rise in temperatures. This change in weather conditions is affecting the apple crop as it requires low temperatures for high quality. Due to the sudden heat wave across North India, the fruit orchards are being affected. The sudden sharp temperature fluctuations have led to the fall of the fruit buds and the spread of infectious diseases. Horticulture is one of the main industries in Jammu and Kashmir and contributes around 8 per cent to the GDP. The Kashmiri apple is among the biggest shareholders in the horticulture industry and apple farmers are worried that the sudden rise and dip in temperatures and erratic rains will hurt the crop. ''The climatic conditions have been erratic not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also in Himachal. Day by day what we are experiencing due to global warming, the apple orchard industry is highly impacted. The fruit produce that we had in 2020 was not seen in 2021, the same as what we had in 2021, we couldn't see it in 2022 and it continues. In south Kashmir, there are so many orchards in Shopian which are completely without any blossoms. We do PGR Sprays and despite that, we are not getting the fruit produce we expect. The climate has highly impacted the fruit production and it is very less this year too,'' said Aamir Manzoor, an apple farmer from Shopian in South Kashmir. One of the main reasons for the decrease in production is linked to inadequate snowfall between December and February and untimely rains. Some of the farmers are also worried and question whether the conversion of traditional apple orchards to high-density orchards could have an impact on the environment too. ''We really need to know the reasons why global warming is happening, is it because of factories, we recently saw that Himachal is having a problem with stone fruit and that's due to the smoke from the factories. We are ourselves responsible for this and scientists need to understand this and come up with a solution. We have been converting traditional apple orchards into ultra-high-density ones and we need to know if that's also impacting the environment. How right it is to convert these orchards, we need to know from the scientists. We don't have that much knowledge and we need to see if it's right and what's the future of it. If everyone is converting the land, the farmers need to know how beneficial it is with regard to the environment,'' said Manzoor. The Kashmir Valley has been witnessing a heatwave in May and the MeT department says the heatwave will continue during June as well. The extreme weather changes have already led to a major drop in the produce of the season's first crops, that is strawberries and cherries. The heatwave will impact the apple crop as well. ''The whole of north India is facing a heat wave and Jammu and Kashmir is also witnessing a heat wave from the last one week or so. In the coming days, there will be some respite after next week. After 3rd June, the heat wave will continue again. The people will face inconvenience. Clear skies heat the soil and there is no moisture. Due to this, the horticulture gets impacted a lot, a few crops like strawberry and cherry have been impacted and are facing forced maturity," said Mukhtar Ahmad, Director MeT. The high temperatures also trigger chances of infectious diseases among the trees leading to less production of the fruit.

Climate change impacting horticulture industry in North India, apple crop affected badly

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Climate change impacting horticulture industry in North India, apple crop affected badly