Back in 2005, 54-year-old Mohammad Rajab, like others in Bridhaji village in Pahalgam, left maize cultivation and planted apple trees on his 4.5 kanals of land. Kashmir’s Apple farming had brought prosperity to many of his neighbors in the village of 150 households after many of them converted their maize fields into apple orchards from 2000 onwards. Rajab would arrive early in the morning to tend to his apple trees. He would regularly spray them with pesticides and nutrients and employ scientific techniques such as maintaining a 10-20 feet distance between them. When the fruit was ripening, he would stay the night at the orchard to protect it from wild bears. “I nurtured the orchard like a child,” says Rajab, in the hope that it would fetch him quality yield and profit. Over the past three years, however, recurrent economic losses have forced Rajab to reconsider apple farming.
