Valley techie sets up Leh’s highdensity apple orchard in Leh
Idea is to have a number of such orchards from Kargil to Leh to give boost to region’s economy
SRINAGAR : In a first, an effort to grow world-class apples in one of the coldest regions of the country has begun with the setting up of an apple orchard, which has high density plants, in Phyang village around 19 kilometre from Leh.
This will be a first high density apple orchard, which is being established by a young entrepreneur from Kashmir Khuram Shafi in collaboration with the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST).
The orchard has been set up at the newly established campus of Himalayan Institute for Alternate Learning (HIAL) University — an initiative by Sonam Wangchuk, who inspired 3 Idiots movie.
“We have planted an apple orchard in this cold region. In the first phase, we planted 264 — Gala Redlum, Red Vilox, Fuji and Golden reindeers — varieties of apple trees,’’ Khuram said, an Industrial System Engineer, Operations Research from Purdue University, US.
“To make it successful, we changed three layers of soil on the barren land. Besides, strong trellis system connected with drip irrigation system that will get water from ice stupa, an innovation by Sonum Wangchuk,’’ Khuram said, who became the first private entrepreneur to establish high density orchard at Bamdoora in south Kashmir. He has already planted high density trees across Kashmir on over 2,000 kanals of land. “It is a big challenge and hopefully its going to yield us good results,’’ he said.
“We may have some issues here, hopefully, we are going to tackle them, especially about pollination and the wind speed,’’ he said.
The idea of this orchard in Leh struck in Khuram’s mind when he had a chance of meeting Sonum Wangchuk in May. “We discussed this idea and after some groundwork the orchard has been established,’’ he said.
GAME CHANGER
SKUAST (K) vice-chancellor professor Nazir Ahmad termed it a game changer for the entire region. “We had planted some high density trees earlier in Ladakh and those have been successful. I am sure this will be a successful project and in coming future, we will have a number of high density apple orchards right from Kargil to Leh, which will give boast to economy of the region,’’ he said, adding that experts of the university are positive about this project. “Though few local varieties of apple already grow in this region. In coming years, focus of apple could shift into Ladakh region due to climate change and the region could emerge as a future for Jammu and Kashmir apple development as well,’’ VC said.Ahmad, a self-proclaimed horticulturist and head of the task force for high density plantation, said, “In India, by 2050, our demand for apples will be up to 160 lakh metric tons. And currently, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh are producing 35 lakh metric tons. This is the time when we should switch over from traditional orchards to high density plantation.’’
“Our major thrust now is towards high density plantation. So far, we have been able to establish these orchards on a very less scale if we compare it to 1,62,000 hectares. For the next five years, we are planning to reach 5,000 to 10,000 hectares,’’ Vinay Dutta, assistant director, horticulture department said.