Srinagar: Strawberry village Gasso faces huge losses due to early summers in Kashmir. Gasso falls between Wanihama and Kihmber in Hazratbal locality in the south of Srinagar city and has got its title “strawberry village” by producing the very first lot of the fruit every year.

Strawberry farmers from Gasso cultivate tons of exotic berries on hundreds of acres of land every year and is the first one to produce the fruit in the entire Kashmir valley. The berries from this village are available in the market before other villages like Tangmarg in north Kashmir’s District, Baramulla.

But this year, there is a fall of 50% in the total production due to the heatwave and lack of rainfall between February and March. “I used to cultivate 600-700 kilograms of strawberries per Kanal previously but this year it has come down to 200-300 kilos because of lack of rainfall in February and March and continuous heatwave,” says Nisar Ahmad.

Nisar Ahmad (58) and his wife Tasleema (52) come to pick up the strawberries in his 2 Kanals of land every day at 6 am and continue work till 11 am during the harvest season.

After picking the strawberries the farmers take them home, to pack them in plastic boxes before selling them at the fruit mandi. The fruit, due to its perishable nature and extremely short shelf-life needs to be transported quickly for consumption.

“We take the fruits to our homes and pack them in a plastic box of 500 grams each before sending it to the fruit Mandi, the fruit has a shelf life of 24 hours if placed properly and if exposed to the sun it will be spoiled in 4-5 hours,” says Manzoor Ahmad.

Strawberries have emerged as an important cash crop in Kashmir and many vegetable growers have switched to strawberry farming.

But this year the farmers have faced huge losses due to the ongoing heatwave and little to no rainfall in the months of February and March. Farmers appeal to the administrations to compensate them for their losses and provide them with borewells so that the problem of water could be overcome in the future.

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