Horticulture Sector Expanding In Kashmir But Farmers Rue Govt Support
Even as the Economic Survey 2024-2025 revealed steady expansion of horticulture sector, farmers said the government suppport hasn't kep pace with the growing challenges.
Published : February 9, 2026 at 6:42 PM IST
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir’s horticulture sector is recording a steady expansion over the past years, with increase in cultivated area with high density plantation, crop production, but farmers say the government support has not kept pace with the growth given challenges of climate change risks and infrastructure gaps.
According to the Economic Survey (2024-2025) compiled by Planning and Monitoring department, and which was tabled in the ongoing budget session of the assembly of the Jammu and Kashmir, in 2024-2025 the area under major horticulture crops increased from 3.42 lakh hectares in 2021-22 to 3.44 lakh hectares in 2024-25 ending November 2024.
The report says the production of crops rose from 24.31 lakh MT to 26.35 lakh MT in the same period. The area under High/Medium Density Plantations expanded significantly from 880.89 hectares up to 2020-21 to 18,533.27 hectares ending November 2024, it says.
The 2023-2024 Economy Survey says that the area under major horticulture crops increased from 3.35 lakh hectares in 2020-21 to 3.45 lakh hectares in 2023-24, while the production of these crops rose from 22.30 lakh MT to 26.43 lakh MT in the same period. It says the area under High/Medium Density Plantations expanded significantly from 880.89 hectares up to 2020-21 to 18,054 hectares ending March 2024.
Per the 2022-2023 economic survey the area under fruits crops has increased from 334719 hectares in the year 2020-21 to 341697 hectares recording a growth of 2.08%. The overall fruit production has increased by 3.95 LMTs during 2021-22 i.e. from 20.36 LMTs in the year 2020-21 to 24.31 LMTs recording a growth of 19.39%. Further under High Density Plantation an area of 6090.91 Ha has been covered during 2021-22 registering a growth of 591 % over the previous year (880.89 Ha).
Farmers and officials say the expansion in the area under horticulture is primarily due to conversion of agricultural land into high density apple plants. As per the official figures from the horticulture department, under the High Density Plantation Scheme for horticulture, about 1,119 hectares have been covered since 2017–2018 till December 2025. It said 18,915 hectares are covered under medium-density plantations.
The government in the recent budget document said that the ₹139 crore assistance has been provided to the growers during this time for plantation of high density.
“Our fruit production increased from 26.43 LMT (2023-24) to 26.92 LMT (2024–25). We aim to reach 29.72 LMT production by 2029–30. Further, 1455 hectares shall be covered during 2026-27 under High/Medium Density Plantation,” chief minister Omar Abdullah said in the budget statement, adding that the Agriculture and Allied sectors have been allocated ₹1,878 crore under capital expenditure for 2026-27.
Farmers say that this expansion has not come without its costs. Muhammad Shafi, a farmer from Shopian, said that vulnerability of the crops to climate changes and lack of proper transportation has led the farmers into financial distress and losses. “The devastating hailstorm in May last year and heavy rainfall in August destroyed apple and vegetable crops worth crores,” he said, ruing the government support was peanuts later.
Acknowledging the climate change impact, the CM also said that the devastating floods in August and September have severely battered the Jammu region. “These two calamities have further accentuated the fiscal challenges before us. All the sectors of economic activity, including tourism, handicrafts, horticulture and agriculture are badly affected. There is a substantial loss of jobs and business in all sectors, leading to financial stress on the families,” Omar said.
To protect horticulturalists from climate risks, the chief minister announced implementation of the Restructured Weather Based Insurance Scheme (RWBIS) for apple, saffron, mango and litchi, with a total sum insured of Rs 6,594.93 crore.
This announcement was welcomed by farmers, but officials say the challenge for the scheme comes from the insurance companies which quote high premiums per kanal of cultivable land. “The insurance companies quote high premium rates which range between 29 % to 40 % for conventional apple orchards. For high density they agree on a 10 % premium, but our area under conventional apple orchards is more than the high density apple plants. We are strategizing about how to implement the scheme with the companies.” Sartaj Shah, director Agriculture Kashmir, told ETV Bharat.
Economic experts like former finance minister, Haseeb Drabu, said that to overcome the challenges of climate and market the apple growers must modernize and improve crop production and quality. Drabu, who in 2016 facilitated the introduction of a high density scheme in Jammu and Kashmir, said that increasing the land area with high density crops, the logistics support like Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores must be increased.
At present, the valley has 68 Controlled Atmosphere (CA) stores operational with a combined capacity of 2.92 lakh MT. Officials put the required capacity to 6 lakh MT as the Valley produces annually 26 lakh MT of apple only, about 80 percent of the total apple production in India.
An additional 15,000 MT of CA capacity is being added in 2025-26 and 38000 MT CA capacity is aimed in 2026-27, Omar announced in his budget speech. He said that 40 CA stores with an investment of ₹1400 Crore would be needed to ensure balanced regional development and wider dispersal of CA storage infrastructure, which the government will help with a subsidy of ₹600 Crore.
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