Srinagar, July 14 -- Even though unusually hot and dry weather in spring and summer seasons affected life across Kashmir this year, it has proved a blessing for stone fruit farmers in the Himalayan region. The valley has recorded a bumper harvest of stone fruits, including plum, apricot, cherry and peach owing to hot and dry weather conditions in comparison to last year. While the apricot and cherry harvest was almost on its tail end, the plum harvest is still going on. "The production of plum was more this year as the weather conditions remained good for stone fruits. The plum is also of better quality this year than last," said Mohammad Ashraf, a plum farmer from the outskirts of Srinagar city. He cited dry weather as the reason. "Dry weather fetches good quantity and quality of fruit. Wet weather causes diseases including scab. March, April and May weather was dry and hence good for stone fruits," he said, adding that he harvested some 20,000 (5kg) boxes this year as against 15,000 last year. "The rates were also good," he said. Most of the plum goes to outside markets including Azadpur Mandi in Delhi. In the central district of Budgam, Apricot farmer Bashir Ahmad Bhat was a happy man as he harvested 3,000 boxes of the fruit. "I was blessed with good production of apricot this year, better than last year and I also got good rates," he said. Bhat, however, said that some of the farmers received less rates as the fruit got infected by some diseases in a few pockets. "The fruit cracked and also had small bumps. So the rates ranged from Rs.150 to Rs.450 per box depending on the quality," he said. Most of the apricot is consumed locally. Horticulture development officer Azfar Nanda said the harvesting was still underway to arrive at any estimated production of stone fruits this year. However he said that there was an obvious increase in production. "Tentatively, we can say that at least there will be a 7-10% increase in production than last year," he said. Nanda said that the quality of the fruits was also good owing to better weather conditions suited for stone fruits. "This summer, we had less rain which increased the production as well as quality. The colour as well as size was good," he said. He said that the weather would cause problems for the farmers in March-April, which would be fruit-set time for the crops. "Any rains at that time would negatively affect fruit-set. However, this year the weather remained favourable for the stone fruit crops," he said. Haji Bashir Ahmad, chairman of Kashmir Valley fruit growers cum dealers union said, "Apricot crop is almost consumed locally but plum and cherry are mostly sent outside the valley. Some are now being stored in CA so that they don't get spoiled and fetch good rates in future as well," he said....