Srinagar, Sept. 27 -- In Kashmir's Anantnag district, Sajad Ahmad Nanwai spends what should have been a bustling harvest morning clearing rotting apples from the ground instead of supervising labourers plucking ripe fruit into crates.

"We wait all year for this season, but it has gone to waste. From Rs.2.5 lakh last year, my orchard has fetched only about Rs.50,000 this time," says the 42-year-old, as the pungent smell of decay hangs in the air.

The prolonged closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the Valley's only road link to the rest of India, has left fruit growers stranded with their crop.

With transport cut off since heavy rainfall on 25 August damaged stretches of the road, growers are now forced to choose between leavi...