Mohammad Waseem
In North Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the fruit businessmen have started picking some special kinds of fruit like papaya and some kinds of apples that are ripe.
These fruits get ripe earlier than other kinds of fruits found in Kashmir and are picked early. This is a moment of joy for the people of the valley that are going to get work and earn their livelihood.
Almost every fruit businessman has started looking for the tools to pick apples. This business has been playing a huge role in decreasing unemployment in the valley.
Kashmir produces about two million tons of apples annually and almost two third of it goes to the non-local market. Kashmiri apples provide a livelihood to around 3.5 billion people and contribute around 8,000 crore income to the region.
Talking to The Kashmiriyat, a common fruit businessman Nazir Ahmad Lone from Baramulla said, “It feels good to be back to work as many are fed up with the unemployment. This gives us some hope that we don’t need to do any government job.”
“We have been in this business from last 10 years. Initially, we earned a good profit from the business and also gave the employment to others. But since almost five years now, it became harsh and hard to survive on this business,” he said.
He further said that many have left the business because of huge losses from the past few years. It is because the raw material used like spray, box, paper, grass, etc is expensive but the rate of a box is still the same as it was before 10 years and always goes down.
He added that even pesticides don’t help in curing the disease in fruits.
In 2019, the apple export witnessed a dip of around one lakh metric tonnes, because of the communication blockade, restrictions, and protests after August 5, when the special status of Jammu Kashmir under Article 370 was revoked.
The crisis for fruit growers worsened when trees were uprooted and cracked under the weight of 3-5 ft. snow.