After eight years almond crop yields happiness for farmers
Bumper almond crop of this season has cheered up the orchardists of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, who have been harvesting the crop zealously for last one week.
Official figures and orchardist accounts reveal that after a dip of around eight years, the almond yield this season has registered more than 50 percent increase.
Manzoor Ahmad Parray, an orchardist from Wahibugh, a village around 5 kilometres from district headquarters in Pulwama has been harvesting almond crop spread on 20 kannals of Karewa land.
“Last year the yield was around 12 quintals but this year it will be round 4 hundred quintals,” Manzoor said, adding that they expect to reap good returns from the crop provided the demand remains high.
Another orchardist, Mohammad Ashraf Ganie said that their harvest for four kannals of land will be round 3 quintals which previously was around 40 kilograms.
He said that most of the orchardist have recorded good yield in their orchards.
Pertinently, Almond sector is considered as one of the main income generating activity in horticulture industry of Pulwama.
The almond industry in Pulwama is spread on more than three hundred hectares of land.
The areas which have registered high almond crop this season include Parigama, Newa, Zadoora, Wahibugh, Gusoo, Rahmu, Koil, Chandgam, Nownagri, Wasoora and Yader.
Official data reveals that this season’s production would be around 138443 tons as compared to previous year’s yield of 3 hundred tons.
“Definitely this year it is a bumper crop,” said Chief Horticulture Officer, R. K Kotwal, adding that such a crop has been witnessed after 8 years of low production.
He said that production of almond depends on suitable climate and rainfall at an appropriate time.
“In last few years snow and rainfall were witnessed during blooming of almonds,” he said, adding that due to abrupt change in temperature the yield was getting impacted.
KV Correspondent
