| Apple Orchards, Unequal Sprays: How Kashmir’s Pesticide use far exceeds Himachal and Uttarakhand | | | Anuj Kumar Verma
Horticulture is the backbone of the economy in both Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, yet a stark and troubling divide has emerged in how apple orchards are being managed across India’s major hill states. While Kashmir’s valleys produce more than three times the apples of Himachal and nearly fifty times those of Uttarakhand, they are also drowning in hazardous agrochemicals at a rate far higher than anywhere else in the country. J&K now records the highest pesticide application rate per hectare of gross cropped area in India. While the national average fell from 0.322 kg/ha in 2017–18 to 0.289 kg/ha in 2021–22, J&K surged to between 2.097 and 3.603 kg/ha in 2022–23, far above Punjab, Haryana and Telangana. This intensive chemical usage places the region well above the national average intensity, and official data indicates that more than 90% of the pesticides used annually in J&K are applied to apple orchards, with farmers allocating nearly 55% of production expenses to crop protection. In sharp contrast, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand show substantially lower pesticide intensity and a smaller share of high-risk chemicals, even as Himachal has built a longer tradition of safer Integrated Pest Management practices that keep residues low and protect human health.
The scale of apple production tells part of the story. Jammu and Kashmir produced about 21.10 lakh metric tonnes of apples in 2024–25 from roughly 1.72 lakh hectares under apple orchards, with the industry valued at nearly ₹12,000 crore annually and supporting around 3.5 million people. Himachal Pradesh’s harvest stood at about 6.99 lakh tonnes in 2025 from around 1.16 lakh hectares under apple cultivation, with an economy estimated at around ₹5,000 crore. Uttarakhand, by contrast, has only about 12,000 hectares under apple cultivation and produces approximately 44,000 metric tonnes annually, a tiny fraction of the output of its northern neighbours. In value terms, J&K’s apple economy is more than twice the size of Himachal’s, yet this economic dominance comes with a hidden cost that is only now coming to light.
The way pesticides are used differs sharply between these regions. In the Kashmir Valley, apple farming still follows a prophylactic, calendar-based spray schedule recommended by SKUAST-Kashmir and the Horticulture Department, under which orchards receive multiple spray rounds through the season with heavy doses of fungicides like mancozeb and captan and insecticides like chlorpyrifos and dimethoate, often without checking whether pests or diseases are actually present. Integrated Pest Management, which relies on monitoring, thresholds and reduced sprays, remains limited and mostly pilot-based in the Valley. Himachal Pradesh, on the other hand, has a longer tradition of IPM in apple, with studies around Shimla showing that most pesticide residues in IPM orchards are below detectable limits and even where residues are found, they are lower in IPM apples and generally below safety limits. In Uttarakhand, full IPM adoption is also patchy, but available studies and extension work suggest greater emphasis on cultural practices, pheromone traps and fewer spray rounds than in the Valley.
The economic burden of this chemical dependency is staggering and differs sharply between the two states. In Kashmir, some orchardists now spend between ₹60,000 and ₹1 lakh per acre on sprays alone, a cost that has risen 30 to 40 percent in recent years, yet delivers little protection due to the widespread use of substandard and spurious agrochemicals. This translates to an estimated ₹1.5 to ₹2.5 lakh per hectare spent annually on purchasing agrochemicals, a figure that keeps climbing as pests develop resistance and farmers spray more frequently. In Himachal Pradesh, while exact per-hectare expenditure data is less documented, the longer adoption of IPM and fewer spray rounds suggest significantly lower input costs for pesticides, with farmers relying more on monitoring and cultural practices that reduce the need for expensive chemical cocktails. The health costs tell an even more devastating story. A hospital-based study at SKIMS covering 2005–2008, published in the Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, found that 389 of 432 patients who died of primary malignant brain tumours were orchard workers, pesticide mixers and sprayers, people living next to orchards, or children who played in treated areas, meaning more than 90% of these cancer deaths occurred among people with long-term exposure to orchard sprays. While comprehensive economic valuations of health costs are not yet available for either state, the clustering of brain tumours and other cancers in Kashmir’s apple districts points to a human and financial toll that far exceeds anything documented in Himachal, where health studies warn of chronic risks but do not report the same scale of carcinogenic fungicide use or the same clustering of brain tumours.
This heavy and risky chemical use in Kashmir is taking a severe toll on growers, their families and the environment. Doctors in the Valley say many farmers still spray without gloves, goggles or masks, and recent reports describe pesticide traces being detected in human samples from apple-growing districts such as Shopian and Pulwama. Soil and water surveys show that more than 90% of soil samples from Kashmir orchards carry residues of banned or restricted organochlorines alongside currently used organophosphates, while drinking-water wells in orchard-home intermixed areas are often contaminated by runoff of spray mixtures. In contrast, although Himachal’s and Uttarakhand’s orchard soils also show legacy residues of HCH, DDT and endosulfan, the diversity and concentration of currently applied hazardous chemicals appear lower, and similar high-intensity patterns have not been documented there.
Residue monitoring on harvested apples reflects this divide. An ICMR-linked assessment reported that about 70% of apple samples from Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand contained pesticide residues exceeding safe limits, but the pattern of violations and the specific chemicals involved differ, with Kashmir showing heavier reliance on fungicides and organophosphates and more frequent detection of multi-residue profiles in market samples. Studies in the Valley have documented chlorpyrifos residues on apples that dissipate over 15–30 days but remain detectable soon after spraying, while broader FSSAI monitoring of fruits, including apple, has found that although most samples comply with maximum residue limits, a small but significant share exceeds them or contains non-approved pesticides, with Kashmir’s intensive spray culture contributing disproportionately to this risk. In Himachal, residue surveys in IPM and non-IPM orchards around Shimla show that except for carbendazim and chlorpyrifos, most pesticide residues in apples are below detectable limits, and even these two are typically below prescribed MRLs, with IPM apples consistently carrying lower residues.
Bashir Ahmad Bashir, President of the Fruit Growers Association Kashmir, when contacted on telephone, said that he has repeatedly voiced alarm over the high usage of hazardous agrochemicals by growers in the Valley and the surge in serious diseases including cancer and brain tumour among growers and their families. He has already met the Union Agriculture Minister to demand replacement of apple and walnut trees with disease-resistant varieties in the Kashmir Valley, noting that SKUAST scientists are taking some initiatives but the measures are insufficient and moving too slowly, while substandard and spurious agrochemicals remain widely available and poorly checked by enforcement agencies. The President of the Fruits Growers Association Kashmir valley lamented that the present government in J&K has no vision about this serious issue. With Jammu and Kashmir now recording the highest pesticide application rate per hectare of gross cropped area in India and total pesticide use rising sharply over the past decade, the policy makers and the scientists of J&K UT need to get awakened up from deep slumber and address this serious issue as an urgency in the interest of our growers, their families, environment and a safe food chain. |
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