Jahangeer Ganaie
Pulwama, Sep 23: In Kashmir’s apple heartland, orchards are strewn with fallen fruit this year, but instead of offering relief to struggling farmers, the “Giran” apples have turned into a fresh source of worry.
Locally known as “Giran”, these are apples that fall prematurely from trees before harvest.
Growers, who spoke to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said that due to unusual weather and heavy fruit fall this season, nearly 30–40 per cent of the crop is “Giran”. Yet, unlike past years, there are no takers for the produce.
Traditionally, small makeshift roadside mandis would spring up across Pulwama, Shopian, and other apple belts where “Giran” apples found ready buyers for juice factories and low-grade processing. However, repeated closures of the Srinagar–Jammu National Highway have disrupted supplies so severely that these mandis were forced to shut down.
“Earlier, Giran apples at least helped us recover some costs. Even if sold at Rs 100–150 per crate, it was a relief compared to nothing,” said Nazir Ahmad, a grower from Pulwama. “But this year, after highway issues, traders closed their mandis. The fruit we had procured rotted in front of us because it could not be transported outside. Now, no one wants to buy it.”
The situation has left hundreds of youth, who earned seasonal income by trading in “Giran”, without work. “The Giran business relies on quick movement. If the fruit doesn’t reach outside mandis within two days, it spoils. Buyers know this risk, so they simply stopped coming,” explained a trader at Jabli Pora Fruit Mandi.
For many farmers, “Giran” apples once acted as a lifeline—bringing in modest earnings that supported their expenses on pesticides, labour, and packaging. Now, growers say they are forced to watch helplessly as the fruit rots in their orchards.
“This is not just about a low-grade apple; it is about livelihoods,” said Abdul Hameed, another grower from Shopian. “Thousands of families, from pickers to packers to transporters, are tied to this trade. If the government doesn’t take immediate steps, this part of our economy will collapse completely.”
Farmers are now appealing for urgent intervention. They want authorities to make special arrangements for apple-laden trucks, including those carrying Giran produce, so that the fallen fruit can reach processing units before spoiling.
Once dismissed as waste, “Giran” apples had gradually built an ecosystem of employment in Kashmir. Today, the same apples are proving to be a burden, symbolising how fragile the valley’s horticulture economy remains in the face of logistical bottlenecks—(KNO)
