As Kashmir swaps paddy with apple orchards, food security and water concerns arise

Kashmir’s farmland is shifting from rice-growing fields to horticulture, especially apple orchards. This matters because paddy supplies a staple food, while orchards bring higher cash returns. The change is strongest in traditional rice-growing districts such as Kulgam, Pulwama and Anantnag.

The financial difference is striking. Nisar Ahmed converted nine kanals of paddy land into a high-density apple orchard after facing losses. His yearly earnings rose from about Rs 30,000–Rs 50,000 to roughly Rs 4 lakh–Rs 5 lakh. Fareed Ahmed also changed six kanals because paddy offered weak returns.

The trend has continued for years. Paddy acreage in Jammu and Kashmir fell about 15% between 2015-2016 and 2024-2025, while apple acreage rose about 60% between 2004-2005 and 2024-2025. Farmers gain income, but Kashmir increasingly depends on outside states for rice.

A high-density apple orchard places more apple trees in each unit of land than a traditional orchard. The trees are usually smaller, closely spaced and trained on supports, making better use of sunlight and available ground. This can produce more fruit from a limited holding, though it requires careful management and investment.

The article gives a clear example but not a technical definition. Nisar Ahmed changed nine kanals of paddy land into a high-density orchard. His income rose from Rs 30,000–Rs 50,000 annually to around Rs 4 lakh–Rs 5 lakh per season. That return difference helps explain the attraction.

The broader point is economic. Shrinking and fragmented landholdings push farmers toward crops with greater value per unit of land. The article does not compare high-density and traditional orchard yields directly, so the exact advantage of the system cannot be measured from its figures.

Official figures show a substantial change in Jammu and Kashmir’s agricultural map. Paddy acreage declined from 304,500 hectares in 2015-2016 to 258,840 hectares in 2024-2025. That is a fall of around 45,660 hectares, or approximately 15%.

Apple cultivation moved in the opposite direction. The area under apple increased from 107,930 hectares in 2004-2005 to 173,073 hectares in 2024-2025. This represents an increase of about 65,143 hectares, or roughly 60%. These figures cover Jammu and Kashmir, not only the Kashmir Valley.

The district-level pattern is sharper in some places. In Kulgam, 6,951 hectares remained under paddy in 2024-2025, compared with 18,255 hectares under apple. In Pulwama, apples covered 15,928 hectares, versus 10,990 hectares for paddy.

Apples earn more because each unit of land can produce a crop with much greater market value than paddy. The article’s researcher, Sameena Lone, describes orchards as generating several times the returns from paddy. This makes apples attractive when cultivation costs rise and farms become smaller through fragmentation.

Nisar Ahmed’s experience shows the mechanism in practical terms. His nine-kanal paddy farm earned Rs 30,000–Rs 50,000 annually. After he planted a high-density apple orchard, the family reported around Rs 4 lakh–Rs 5 lakh each season. The higher-value crop changed the farm’s income significantly.

The article does not provide detailed figures for prices, yields, labour or input costs. It does show the central calculation: farmers compare income per unit of land, not simply the amount of food produced. For individual growers, apples therefore appear economically rational, even though the regional food balance changes.

When paddy fields become orchards, less land is available to grow rice locally. That matters because rice is a staple food, so a decline in regional production can increase dependence on supplies from other states. The issue is not that farmers make irrational choices; it is that private gains can create a wider food-security concern.

The article links this change directly to falling paddy acreage. In Jammu and Kashmir, paddy area dropped from 304,500 hectares in 2015-2016 to 258,840 hectares in 2024-2025. In Kulgam, only 6,951 hectares remained under paddy, while apple covered 18,255 hectares.

Sartaj Ahmad Shah, Director Agriculture in Kashmir, acknowledged that dependence on outside rice supplies has increased. The department does not track how much paddy land becomes orchards, making the exact scale difficult to establish. No policy specifically protects paddy regions from orchard conversion.

Moving from paddy to apples changes the risk profile of farming. Instead of relying mainly on a food grain, growers depend more heavily on one commercial crop. This can raise income, but it also makes earnings more sensitive to orchard damage, disease outbreaks, weather events and market prices. These specific risks are not analysed in the article.

The article does show why farmers accept that trade-off. Nisar Ahmed said nine kanals of paddy earned Rs 30,000–Rs 50,000 annually, while his high-density orchard brought around Rs 4 lakh–Rs 5 lakh per season. Fareed Ahmed also shifted six kanals because paddy returns were unhealthy.

A larger orchard economy could therefore bring stronger incomes in good seasons but sharper losses in bad ones. The article provides no figures comparing hail, pest, disease or price risks. It does establish that many farmers are making the change for higher returns, while regional reliance on outside rice grows.

Paddy needs standing water because rice is commonly grown in flooded or saturated fields during much of its growing period. Water supports the crop’s growth and suppresses weeds. Orchards, by contrast, generally need soil moisture rather than a continuously flooded field. Their water demand depends on trees, weather, soil and irrigation methods.

In Kashmir, irrigation channels built for paddy still run through fields that have become apple plantations. This shows that infrastructure can remain even after cropping patterns change. However, the article does not say whether orchard conversion has reduced irrigation withdrawals or changed groundwater and channel flows.

A shift away from flooded paddy could alter seasonal water demand, but the direction and size of that change cannot be established from the article. Better local records would be needed. The Agriculture Department already lacks data on paddy land converted into orchards, making water planning harder as apple cultivation expands.