Srinagar, Dec. 27 -- Jammu and Kashmir grows more apples than any other region in India, but its orchards sit in a fragile balance, exposed to hailstorms, heatwaves, and increasingly snowless winters that can wipe out a season's labour.

These climate shocks are beginning to unravel Kashmir's Rs.15,000-crore fruit economy, trapping apple growers in a cycle of rising input costs and recurring losses, even as the promise of crop insurance remains largely theoretical.

Weighed down by low enthusiasm after another season of heavy losses, fruit growers have begun the new farming cycle, pruning apple trees in their orchards, amid Chilai Kalan, Kashmir's harshest forty days of winter.

In Allaiepora village of Pulwama, Khursheed Ahmad Allaie tel...