SHIMLA/TIKKAR: A devastating hailstorm has battered the Daroti apple belt in Tikkar of Rohru subdivision, causing extensive damage to the standing crop at a time when harvesting was at its peak.
Several other parts of Shimla district’s apple-growing areas have also reported damage, adding to the mounting losses of growers already facing a difficult season.
The timing of the hailstorm has made the damage particularly painful. Farmers in Daroti and surrounding areas were in the middle of picking market-ready apples when the storm struck, bruising and damaging fruit that was ready for harvest. Growers fear that much of the damaged produce will now fetch drastically lower prices in the market.
The storm has delivered another shock to an apple industry already struggling with a significant fall in production. Farmers estimate that the crop this year could be around 40 per cent lower than last year, while repeated spells of adverse weather have further reduced their prospects of recovering the rising cost of cultivation.
The hailstorm followed nearly ten days of intermittent heavy rain in the apple belt. The monsoon had otherwise entered a lull in Himachal Pradesh, but repeated rain spells disrupted harvesting, delayed picking and created additional problems as the crop approached maturity.
For growers in Daroti, Tikkar and other affected parts of Shimla, the latest weather event has almost wiped out hopes of salvaging a difficult season. Apples damaged by hail lose their market value, while fruit that remains on the trees faces further uncertainty from continuing weather fluctuations.
The crisis comes after years of growing pressure on the apple economy. Farmers say market prices have not kept pace with the steep rise in the cost of fertilisers, pesticides, packaging, labour, machinery and other inputs. According to growers, their profit margins have been squeezed by nearly 50 to 60 per cent, making every weather-related loss increasingly difficult to absorb.
What makes the latest damage more serious is that it has come when farmers have already invested heavily and the crop was ready to be taken to market. A hailstorm at this stage means not only loss of production but also the loss of the higher value that market-ready fruit could have commanded.
Farmers have sought immediate government relief and an expert assessment of the damage in the affected orchards. They say the horticulture authorities need to conduct a ground-level assessment in Daroti, Tikkar and other affected pockets of Shimla rather than leaving growers to bear the losses on their own.
Growers have also raised questions over the adequacy of crop insurance against hailstorms, which remain one of the biggest weather threats to Himachal’s apple industry.
They want the government to examine the insurance mechanism and ensure that sudden and localised hail damage does not leave farmers without meaningful compensation.
For the apple growers of Daroti and the wider Rohru-Shimla belt, the latest storm has come when the crop was already running short and cultivation costs were at record levels.
The repeated cycle of rain, hail and production losses is now threatening to turn another lean apple season into a deeper financial setback for farmers.
#HimachalPradesh #Rohru #AppleFarmers #Hailstorm
