By Mohammad Amin Mir

Picture two adjacent plots in a Kashmir village. One is an apple orchard, carefully cultivated over years. The other is a line of poplars, fast-growing, profit-friendly trees often planted for timber.

As the poplars shoot up, reaching 60 to 80 feet in just a decade, they begin casting long shadows over the orchard. Their leaves fall, roots stretch wide, and presence begins to impact the yield next door.

The orchard owner files a complaint. He says the shade is stunting his apples, the leaf fall is encouraging pests, and the roots are draining water from his soil. The poplar grower says it’s his land. He can do what he wants.

This isn’t just a local spat. It’s a signal of a slowly spreading tension across rural India as land use patterns shift, climate pressures build, and farming becomes less about food and more about returns.

Agriculture in Kashmir still employs around 60% of the population. The valley grows over 20 lakh metric tonnes of apples every year, contributing nearly 75% to India’s apple production.

At the same time, timber demand has created a poplar boom. Farmers are incentivised to plant fast-yielding trees, sometimes harvesting them in 10 to 12 years for plywood, packaging, and matchstick industries.

Schemes like the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) have pushed orchard expansion. Meanwhile, the poplar trade has turned timber into a second income stream for families.

Yet when........

© Kashmir Observer