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Kashmir’s apple harvesting season was meant to bring hope after months of weather-related setbacks in the region. But, for thousands of fruit growers in the valley, it has become a period of despair, with trucks laden with fresh produce stranded for days and debt steadily mounting as the valley’s only all-weather road link remains prone to unpredictable closures.

With the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway repeatedly shut due to torrential rains, landslides and shooting stones, Kashmir’s Rs 12,000-crore horticulture industry is staring at losses. The highway’s traffic disruption has become a major hurdle, with tonnes of apples, pears and plums unable to reach markets across India and abroad on time at the peak of the harvesting season.

For orchardist Abdul Rashid from Shopian, the crisis is more than a number. “It disappoints when there is news of road closure. It gives me sleepless nights as I have borrowed money for fertilisers and packaging, hoping to recover it from sales. Every year we face a similar problem,” he told The Wire.

His story echoes that of the valley, where apple growers say weeks of uncertainty wipe out an entire season’s earnings. By the time food-laden trucks are allowed to ply on the road, much of the produce is spoiled.

“We wait day and night, hoping the road would open, but no one cares about poor farmers. And when the fruits spoil no one compensate us,” Abdul Majeed, a grower from South Kashmir’s Pulwama, told The Wire.

The 270-km-long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is the valley’s only all-weather surface link to the rest of the country. Every year, it becomes the economic artery through which Kashmir’s produce reaches wholesale markets in........

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