SRINAGAR, June 9: The rise and fall in temperatures in the valley over the last couple of weeks is causing serious worries among farmers and fruit growers.
Plummetting temperatures due to rains in the plains and a fresh snowfall in the mountains have caused a delay in the plantation of crops for harvest later this year.
“Paddy transplantation operations are time bound. In any case the shifting of the nurseries to the fields must be completed before June 21,” said Ghulam Muhammad Magray, 45, a farmer in north Kashmir’s Ganderbal district according to IANS.
“The transplantation has been delayed. Because of the dip in temperatures, the nurseries have started turning yellow, which is a bad sign,” he added.
Fruit growers of the valley, mainly those in Baramulla district, complain that the fruit crop has suffered immensely because of hailstorms during the last fortnight.
“Many apple orchards have suffered huge losses. Now the fall in temperatures will delay growth and maturing. This summer seems to be a freakish one,” said Mushtaq Ahmad Bacha, 39, a fruit grower in Sopore town.
Officials of kashmir’s meteorological department blame the Western disturbances for the unreliable weather in the valley.
“A western disturbance for the last five days has been causing thundershowers in the plains and snowfall in the higher reaches. The fall in the temperatures is because of fresh snowfall in the higher reaches,” Srinagar’s weather office director Sonam Lotus said.
But Lotus said the disturbance had started weakening which means that the weather will now start improving gradually.
“In the next few days, the weather is expected to be dry except for some isolated thundershowers,” he said.
