Opinion | The Apple Crossroads: Kashmir’s Next Generation

A timeless tradition faces a modern dilemma, As the youth weigh heritage against new horizons. With the valley’s economy hanging in the balance, Can innovation root them back to their orchards?

Apples are as much a part of the valley’s identity as its shawls and saffron. For generations, apple farming has provided livelihoods and social status, while also helping to organize rural life around a calendar. Today, the young generation in Kashmir is evaluated regarding the decision whether to pursue the history of apple farming that constructed the economy of the Valley or to chase the more contemporary professions that offer better economic opportunities and international opportunities. For young people, the sentimental is no longer the only consideration. For the first time, it is also economic, environmental, and demographic, and the numbers on each side are impossible to ignore. This friction is a digression not only from individual aspirations, but the vision for the apple sector as well, which for all intends and purposes is cornerstone for Kashmir for economic sustenance and for Indian agriculture. In Kashmir apple cultivation is very important for rural economy and it contributes around 8-10% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory and directly-indirectly around 3 million people are depend on it. The Valley, with an annual yield of 1.8 to 2.1 million metric tons of apples and a revenue of 10,000 crore Rupees, produces 75-78% of apples in India. For over half a million families, apple orchards are a source of invaluable income in all seasons, as well as a tradition. Having said this, the Apple industry does not lack in challenges. The value of losses due to severe weather, border pass blockages, and unsold perishable stock is in excess of 200 million dollars. Mis predicted and poorly handled supply chains with competing imported apples and fluctuating market prices only further increase the risk to an already risky supply chain . Kashmir’s apple farming also has the potential to be profitable within a shrinking time frame. The traditional tall-tree apple orchards are slow to return profit, taking 8–10 years to mature. While, over the last few years, young farmers have moved towards high-density plantation where increased returns are achieved within 2 to 3 years and up to 4-fold the returns in comparison to traditional methods. The shift towards high-density apple farming in the vale is a high oasis in value and potential return. Not only in increased profit within a shorter time frame, but also a new outlook for entrepreneurship in farming. The entrepreneurship opportunities are many in the new farming activity. Technology, cold-storage and improved grading facilities have all supplied the necessities for Kashmiri apples to be sold internationally. All of these opportunities are available in new farming activity, as in the case of Kashmiri Fresh Picks, located in Baramulla, where the young and tech-savvy leaders of the organization, used withdraw and e-marketing strategies to take their sales, for the 2023 season, to direct over 30,000 kilograms of apples sold to their customers through Instagram. Although modernization has reached the region, the Kashmiri youth average instinct out of farming is change over to higher education, pursue employments in the civil service, take on Information Technology, and start ventures in other field’s entrepreneurship. This tendency is motivated by the high unemployment vacuum in the region, especially with the rural youth populace, and the assumption that fields outside of farming are more profitable and lower risk economically. The wish for economic stability, preceded by an urban center and digital outline, is the cause of the decline of traditional farming. In order to narrow the distance, the government developed policies with the aim of positing the youth towards farming with start-up initiatives, loan policies, insurance and value adding agricultural tech. But the agricultural mentality of the youth in Kashmir is more positive with one looking to secure employment as opposed to an employer in farming. Young women have been at the forefront of the positive transformations taking place in Kashmir’s agriculture. With the help of the social change initiatives and government schemes, many young women have begun starting their diversified agricultural enterprises, mushroom farms, and even nurseries for flowers! This enables them to earn and raise their economic status, and it also empowers them to combat social norms.

Even with advances in technology and young entrepreneurship taking part in developments within the apple industry, the outlook is ambiguous at best. Imports of fresh apples from Iran, Turkey and China increase competition and put additional strain on pricing, while logistical costs squeeze profitability – an issue most evident among small marginal growers. On the other hand, disinvestment from farming, particularly as young people see more “modern” professions in cities, creates the risk of losing the farming skills and tradition required for eco-conscious apple farming. Without a change in trajectory, the industry is likely to face loss of young, appropriately skilled workers in a manner that ultimately undermines the Valley’s reputation as the “Apple Bowl of India. ”The young Kashmiri minds particularly Gen-Z are in dilemma, whether they should continue with apple farming or to go with something else. Reformed traditional farming practices, new combinations of farming with digital and entrepreneurial initiatives, and new opportunities that enabled young people to view farming positively, with social and monetary respect, and as a profitable career, would all likely drive the solutions. With the apple industry in Kashmir poised to change, the options these young people choose determine the economic and cultural contours of the region for decades to come. The commitment of the Valley’s people to their heritage, alongside a more modern attitude, could assure that the region will remain fruitful, in all the ways that matter, for many generations to come.

The writer is a Student of History at Kashmir University,

Researcher & Strategist from Jammu& Kashmir & can be reached at fn6113739@gmail.com