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VOL. 6, ISSUE 1 (2024)
Apple horticulture as the backbone of Kashmir’s economy: A structural and trade analysis
Authors
Dr. Kaneez Fatima
Abstract
Apple horticulture is the most visible
high-value farm system of Kashmir and a major source of household income,
seasonal employment, transport demand, packaging activity, mandi turnover,
cold-storage investment and rural credit. This paper develops a public-data
assessment of the sector using official and international sources: the NITI Aayog
roadmap for horticulture development in Jammu and Kashmir, the J&K
Horticulture Department portal, APEDA export information, National Horticulture
Board area and production statistics, and USDA/FAS data on India’s fresh apple
trade. The analysis treats Kashmir’s apple economy as a structural
production-and-market system rather than as a single crop series. Three results
stand out. First, apple dominates the J&K fruit economy: in 2022-23 it
accounted for 50.0 percent of all fruit area and 78.8 percent of all fruit
production, with even higher shares within fresh fruits. Second, long-run fruit
growth has been driven by area expansion and only moderate productivity gains;
for apple between 2004-05 and 2022-23, a log-decomposition attributes roughly
69 percent of production growth to area expansion and 31 percent to yield
improvement. Third, trade pressure is rising: India’s apple imports increased
far more rapidly than exports between 2010 and 2024, and USDA/FAS data show
imports above half a million tonnes in market year 2024/25. Scenario
simulations show that reducing the reported post-harvest apple loss of 500,000
tonnes by 20 percent would recover about 100,000 tonnes and Rs. 300 crores in
value, while expanding controlled-atmosphere storage from 270,374 tonnes to
750,000 tonnes would raise coverage from about 12.6 percent to about 34.9
percent of 2022-23 apple output. The paper argues that the strategic constraint
is no longer simple output expansion. The central task is coordinated upgrading
across rootstocks, grading, farmer-producer organizations, cold-chain
logistics, processing, traceability, export protocols and price-risk
management.
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Pages:144-151
How to cite this article:
Dr. Kaneez Fatima "Apple horticulture as the backbone of Kashmir’s economy: A structural and trade analysis". International Journal of Management and Economics, Vol 6, Issue 1, 2024, Pages 144-151
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