The hailstorm in southern and northern parts of Kashmir Valley have shattered the dreams of farmers and fruit growers as the storm hit hard all the standing crops and different fruit that was in flowering stage. The storm his multiple districts across the Kashmir Valley, including Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag, Budgam, Baramulla, and Kupwara. Accompanied by strong winds and lightning, the storm led to significant destruction of apple, cherry, pear, and plum orchards besides vegetables. The impact of the storm is huge and equally huge are the losses that the fruit growers are going to face. It goes without saying that horticulture sector, particularly apple cultivation, is the main economic activity that supports the livelihoods of thousands of families. Kashmir’s being the agrarian based economy, horticulture is the main source of income for thousands of families. Unfortunately, the sector is vulnerable to weather vagaries that most of the times result into huge losses to the people associated with the sector.
The Minister for Agriculture Production, Javid Ahmad Dar has directed the Heads of the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments to initiate an immediate assessment of the losses caused across all districts in J&K and has instructed the concerned to dispatch the joint field teams comprising departmental officials to all affected areas in coordination with the district administrations, to evaluate the extent of the damage and submit consolidated reports for timely relief processing. He assured that Omar Abdullah-led government stands in solidarity with the farming community during this challenging time and the administration will remain closely engaged in assessing the situation and exploring appropriate measures to provide relief to the affected farmers.
Government may pay some compensation to the effected lot but that is not the long-term solution. Every now and then we see crops getting destroyed due to inclement weather conditions, the government deputing experts to assess the losses and then paying some compensation to the effected ones. A good chunk of compensation money, unfortunately, ends up in the pockets of concerned government officials. So, need is to formulate a practical and comprehensive insurance scheme, make orchardists aware about it and then implement it. Implementation of a robust crop insurance scheme is a must to provide financial protection to farmers and fruit growers against natural calamities.
While much is being said about horticulture sector in Kashmir, very less has been done to modernize the sector to meet the weather challenges. The government has never encouraged the farmers to use Hail Nets which can significantly reduce the impact of hail storm on crops. Need is that the government of the day launches a massive awareness campaign about hail protection and subsidizes the installation of Hail Nets so that even the small orchardists, who are much bigger in the numbers, are able to purchase these nets and save their crop from frequent damages. It goes without saying that unless the government subsidizes the installation of the Hail Nets, majority of the orchardists can’t afford to purchase the same.