Amid a lack of safety net for apple farmers of the Valley, growers say they have little option but to bear the brunt of climate shocks.
A hailstorm on Monday spelt doom for dozens of apple-rich villages across south and north Kashmir, leaving thousands of farmers distraught.
Ghulam Mohammad, a farmer from Nihama village in Kulgam district, about 75 km south of Srinagar, said a sudden hailstorm battered the entire village.
According to him, pea-sized hailstones pelted apple orchards for nearly 20 to 25 minutes.
The hailstorm struck just as orchards were in full bloom, knocking delicate blossoms off trees and carpeting the ground with white petals tinged with pink — a critical loss that could sharply reduce fruit yield.
“It is a recurring phenomenon. We have been witnessing such untimely weather events for the past several years, and each time they hit at a crucial stage of flowering, the losses are severe,” several affected orchardists said.
They added that in the absence of any safety net, farmers are left to bear the losses on their own, with little institutional support to cushion the impact.
Compensation currently provided to affected growers ranges between ₹800 and ₹1,000 per kanal, which farmers said is far below the actual damage incurred.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), introduced in 2016 to provide financial protection against natural calamities, has yet to be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. Although tenders have been floated multiple times to bring insurers on board for the horticulture sector, the response has remained lukewarm.
However, the government, in the last Assembly session, informed the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly that two insurers — Agriculture Insurance Company of India and Tata AIG General Insurance — had emerged as the lowest bidders to implement the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme for apple and saffron crops.
In a written reply to a starred question by a legislator, the government said the tendering process had been completed and allotment of work to the selected insurers was underway.
Published on April 8, 2026