Back in 2005, 54-year-old Mohammad Rajab, like others in Bridhaji village in Pahalgam, left maize cultivation and planted apple bushes on his 4.5 kanals of land. Apple farming had introduced prosperity to a lot of his neighbours within the village of 150 households, after a lot of them transformed their maize fields into apple orchards from 2000 onwards. Rajab would arrive early within the morning to are inclined to his apple bushes. He would frequently spray them with pesticides and vitamins and make use of scientific methods reminiscent of sustaining 10-20 toes distance between them. When the fruit was ripening, he would keep the night time on the orchard to guard it from wild bears. “I nurtured the orchard like a child,” says Rajab, within the hope that it might fetch him high quality yield and revenue. Over the previous three years, nevertheless, recurrent financial losses have pressured Rajab to rethink apple farming.
Source: www.indiatoday.in
