There used to be a time, not too long ago, when the road from Budgam to Srinagar International Airport used to be lined by almond orchards, recalls farmer Muhammad Abid.
Massive urbanisation over the years has caused the orchards to disappear, said Abid, a resident of Budgam, the second largest grower of almonds in the Kashmir Valley,
In Budgam itself, many almond growers have started growing apples instead, Abid said. In 2015 alone, the district lost 5,665 hectares of land where almonds once used to be grown.
Urbanisation apart, poor prices for local varieties and competition from imports have contributed to dwindling production of almonds in Kashmir.
“Due to poor rates, we were forced to remove all the almond trees from our land,” said Waheeda, a 50-year-old landowner who once had acres of land where she grew almonds.
Almonds to apples
“Almost 95 percent of growers removed almond trees in Kanji Naag village, situated 3 kilometres from the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. The growers have replaced their almond orchards with apple orchards,” Waheeda said.
The annual cost of maintaining an almond orchard, and labour for pre- and post- harvesting would be around Rs. 50,000-80,000, and 1 kg of almonds would fetch between Rs. 70 and Rs. 80, she said.
“Almond farming was sometimes not even giving us the amount we used to spend on orchard management,” she said.
Among Indian states, almonds are grown in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra, but the Kashmiri varieties are famous both for their quality. In 2021-22, Kashmir accounted for 91.26 percent of almond production in India, followed by Himachal Pradesh with 8.73 percent and Maharashtra with 0.09 percent.
Jammu and Kashmir produces five varieties of almonds—Makhdoon, Merced, Waris, Shalimar and Paper Shell. The most popular are Makhdoon, Waris and Shalimar.
The Karewas of Awantipora in Pulwama district, the No. 1 producer of almonds in Kashmir, were once dotted by almond trees, but not anymore. Hundreds of acres of land where almonds were once grown in Koil, Awantipora, Payar, Chandigam, Lajoora, Pahnard, Pachnargd and Thokernag villages of Pulwama have shifted to other crops.
Production decline
Official figures accessed by Moneycontrol show that in 2006-07 the area under almond cultivation in Kashmir was 16,374 hectares; it declined to 4,177 hectares in 2019-20. Almond production fell from 15,183 tonnes in 2006-07 to 9,898 tonnes in year 2019-20.
Bahadur Khan, president of the Dry Fruit Association of Kashmir, said poor prices for local almonds had compelled growers in Kashmir to axe almond trees from their orchards.
“The government, instead of strengthening the Kashmir’s almond trade, imposed taxes on the crop. On the other side the Indian government continue to import almonds from California which also spoiled the almond trade in Kashmir,” Khan said. He urged the central government to increase duties levied on imported dry fruits.
Abdul Majeed Wani, a resident of Koil, Pulwama, had more than 20 kanals (one kanal is equivalent to one-eighth of an acre) of almond-growing land in the year 2000, but that has now fallen to a mere 2 kanals.
“Despite working tirelessly in our almond orchards, we were unable to fetch good rates for the crop. Eventually we were forced to axe almond trees from our orchards,” said Wani. He added that the crop production also declined from 20 quintals to 2 quintals.
Zahoor Ahmad, a dry fruit seller in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, told Moneycontrol that despite local almonds being available, competing varieties imported from Afghanistan, Iran and California are also sold to customers.
“There is not much difference in rates between the local produce and non-local produce.
The almonds grown in Kashmir are sold at Rs. 700 per kg while the non-local almonds are sold between Rs. 750 and Rs. 800. Despite Kashmiri almonds being organic, sweet and having good oil content, they failed to survive the invasion by non-local varieties,” Ahmad said.
Rapid loss of land under almond cultivation and lower production has increased India’s imports. Almond imports increased from 34.36 tonnes in 2008 to 115.05 tonnes in 2019.
No dry fruit ‘mandi’
The Kashmir valley, despite being the largest producer of almonds and other dry fruits in India, has no ‘mandi,’ or market. devoted to the trade.
“Even though Jammu does not produce even a single dry fruit, Narwal Mandi controls the entire business and dry fruit dealers from Jammu monopolize the trade,” said Wani.
“There is no market for the local produce and the (horticulture) department too has not provided any high-yielding plant that would produce quality almonds. The work on crop quality besides training and awareness about pre- and post-harvesting methods should have been taught to growers.”
The government is finally doing something about the almond trade.
Mohammad Amin Bhat, who works as a district-level subject matter specialist at the Directorate of Horticulture, said under the so-called Modified High- Density Scheme. the department has included almonds among the crops to be cultivated on modern lines with innovative measures.
“Almonds are among the 12 crops which we have included under the Modified High-Density Scheme. The goal is to increase the quality production of almonds more rapidly,” Bhat said.
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