Successful experiment rekindles Kandi farmers' hope of converting land into apple orchards

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Ranjari (Samba), June 8

A successful trial in the Sahib Bandgai Asharam has rekindled hope among hundreds of farmers of the Kandi belt in J&K’s Samba district that they could grow apples on their lands.

Initially, the farmers were not willing to accept that apples could be grown in this belt, where temperatures hover around 42 to 45 degrees Celsius in May, June and July, and the scarcity of water is a big factor.

“Initially, on trial basis we had planted trees in a small area but today we have three big apple orchards with nearly 500 trees spread in an area of nearly 100 acres,” Kuldeep Raj of Sahib Bandgai Asharam told The Tribune. “The trees were planted three years back and now we are harvesting 350 to 450 fruits from every plant.”

Raj said that farmers of the Kandi belt, which spreads over hundreds of kilometers in Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur districts, could earn handsomely by converting their fields into apple orchards.

A special variety of apple, known as HRMN-99, has been successfully grown in the Kandi belt where farmers cannot get even two crops a year due to non-availability of irrigation facilities. “This variety is surviving in 45 degree Celsius, so it is best suitable for farmers of this belt,” Raj said.

This variety was specially developed to be grown in plain, tropical and subtropical areas. This apple variety does not require chilling hours for flowering and fruit setting.

“We can only grow wheat, maize or bajra on our land due to the topography of this belt but a successful experiment in the ashram has encouraged us to convert our lands into apple orchards,” Ramesh Singh, a farmer of Raya village, said. “We have already planted some apple trees in our fields.”