Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 9: With back to back hail storms hitting South Kashmir, the Horticulture setups across the districts in the South have suffered immense damage with growers stating that their produce might see a dip this year.
A few days ago, a hail storm hit several areas of Kulgam including Churat, Pahloo, Sopat, Devsa as well as many areas of Shopian including the main town of the Shopian as well as Imam Sahib area of the district. In Kulgam, few more areas that have been witnessing hailstorms include Zazripora, Padderpora, Daderkoot.
The hailstorm again hit several areas of the district Kulgam as well as Shopian on Sunday resulting in further damage to the orchards including vegetables.
Growers said that the hail storms have damaged cherry trees, apple trees, almond trees as well as vegetables while as they believe that they have lost more than 30 per cent of their produce which was expected this year.
“It could be more, but we are estimating losses this year as the back to back hailstorms have hit the Southern areas and have resulted in the destruction of the orchards,” said Abdul Hameed, a grower from Kulgam.
The growers said that they were expecting handsome production this year, but the sudden hailstorms, they said, have wreaked havoc although their orchards.
“It didn’t happen once, it has now happened thrice and the buds that had just emerged on various trees in our orchards have been damaged; they will end up in the damaged fruits, resulting in a dip in the production of good quality produce,” the growers said.
The growers said that they have suffered back-to-back setbacks for the last few years now and that they are in a state of depression which they said can slide towards worse if the situation did not improve.
On the other side, the concerned department has been delaying the spot inspections to ascertain the damages suffered by the orchards, while the growers are demanding adequate compensation. They said that adequate compensation from the government and district authorities must be given to them for the losses they suffered.
The concerned officials, however, said that they are ascertaining the losses caused due to the hailstorms in Shopian, as well as Kulgam areas and the same, will be brought to the fore soon.
They also advised the farmers to contact their respective control rooms set up by the department for their help and can get the information on what sort of sprays they can use to get the better quality produce at the end of the year.
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