Srinagar, August 18: After suffering losses in recent years for a variety of reasons, high density apple growing is putting smiles back on the faces of fruit producers as it is bringing in sizable profits from markets.
The biggest feature of the new apple types introduced in Kashmir after 2015, according to growers, is that the trees begin giving apples only one year after they are planted and achieve peak output in the fourth or fifth year.
Traditional apple trees, according to them, begin giving fruit at least 10 years after planting and are harvested in November. Although high density apples are only picked in August, this sometimes results in producers suffering damages from early snowfall.
The conventional apple trees were replaced with high density plants last year, according to Muhammad Ashraf, a farmer from Pulwama who owns a high density orchard on 8 kanals.
“We planted Red Galla high-density apples last year, and this year we sold them for Rs 5 lakh, while traditional apple trees haven’t produced that amount for us in 15 years,” he said.
Another Anantnag farmer, Mohammad Ayoub, said that high density apple trees produce at least five times as much fruit as conventional types while using just 80% of the fertiliser and pesticides.
“I spent about two lakhs in June last year to plant high density apples, and so far this year I have received more than half of the amount spent,” he said.
According to Ayoub, high density apples are paying off for producers in only two years and even buyers go to farms to buy fruit.
According to other producers, there is now a strong market for high density apples, and farmers are being paid handsomely as a result.
High density apples are supposed to be less susceptible to infections, and there are ways to protect them against hailstorm and other things, but such measures aren’t accessible for conventional types.
Ansar ul Haq, manager of one such firm that sells high density apple seedlings to customers, quoted horticulture experts as saying that high density apples are less susceptible to illnesses and need relatively little fertiliser and pesticide spray.
By the third year after planting, these apple trees yield between 50 and 70 tonnes of fruit per hectare, as opposed to barely 10 to 15 tonnes from conventional types, he said.
According to Basheer Ahmad, president of the Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers Cum Dealers Union (KVFGCDU), there is a greater demand for high density apples right now, and as more people grow them today, output is rising year after year.(KNO)
