The recent untimely snowfall in the Kashmir Valley that caused so much damage to the orchards, may badly hit apple production in coming years as well. The snowfall that happened in the valley last week, besides leading to the breakdown of services for days, badly hit the fruit industry. The Indian government announced there would be compensation for the farmers but horticultural authorities are yet to assess the damage. The expressed the fears, however, that the damage caused to the apple trees will badly affect production in coming years. Four districts of south Kashmir including Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian were the worst hit. Orchardists there suffered heavily as the snow not only damaged their fruit bearing trees but also their yet to be harvested fruit. Chief Horticulture Officer from Anantnag, Mohammad Yasin, said they are still carrying out the assessment of the damage caused to the horticulture sector. "As per the preliminary assessment the damage is about 30 percent but once the proper assessment is carried out we will come up with the exact damage report." He, however, said that the damage caused to the fruit bearing trees will definitely hit the production in coming years. "Since the huge fruit bearing trees were completely damaged the apple production will be hit badly. There will be at least a 20 percent drop in apple production next year.” A total of 144,825 hectares of land are used for fruit production in the valley, producing 1,7 million tons of fruit annually. Source - http://www.freshplaza.com