Srinagar, May 19 -- By Hidayat Bukhari

Kashmir's apple economy cannot keep running on compensation forms and post-disaster surveys.

Hailstorms strike orchards, officials conduct assessments, relief announcements follow, and growers return to the next season with deeper debt and thinner margins. Administrative procedure moves forward, but economic logic collapses.

That contradiction now sits at the center of one of India's most important horticultural regions.

Kashmir produces the bulk of the country's apples during strong seasons and supports a vast economic chain tied to orchards, freight, cold storage, packaging, labour, transport, and rural commerce. Climate shocks now hit that system with growing frequency, while public policy sti...