Around 25 kilometres south of Srinagar, in the Kakapora area of Pulwama district, farmers are cutting paddy with a sense of relief they have not felt for a long time. After years of floods, dry spells and uneven weather, this season has brought the temperature, sunshine and rainfall that rice needs to grow well.
Harvesting has begun in several parts of Kashmir, including Kulgam, Anantnag, Pulwama and Ganderbal. Cultivators say the crop is better than in recent seasons, and many hope it will improve their incomes after repeated losses.
Mohammad Maqbool Ganaie, 47, a farmer from Wandakhpora village, said he thanked God for a harvest he had not seen in 15 years. He said farmers had faced water shortages for many years, but this year the rains were sufficient. He also recalled how badly last year went. “Last year, floods destroyed our crops as water submerged the paddy fields. It remained there till harvesting season,” he said.
Abdul Rasheed, 70, from the Awantipora area, described a similar change. He said the yield this year was surprisingly higher than in previous years. His fields have long suffered because the river is far away and the water level is often too low to reach the lift irrigation pumps. This year, he said, continuous rain solved that problem and brought a better yield after many years.
Waheed Ur Rehman, Chief Agriculture Officer of Pulwama, said temperatures stayed in line with what the paddy crop requires. He also credited new high density varieties from the Shalimar Rice (SR) series for the good production. He cautioned that exact figures are not yet available because harvesting is still under way.
He said that in areas like Pulwama, varieties such as SR 4, SR 2 and Shalimar Sugandh-1 (SS-1) are widely grown, along with K 332, a high altitude variety released in 1982. According to him, these varieties resist diseases such as rice blast better. He added that farmers are also becoming more aware of zinc deficiency in their soil.
Crop Cut Experiments are under way to measure this year’s output, and the official said exact figures will follow once the harvest ends. “For now we estimate a far better production this year compared to previous years,” he said.
Weather data supports what farmers describe. According to the India Meteorological Department, Jammu and Kashmir received 259.7 mm of rainfall in July, against a normal of 192.6 mm. That is a surplus of 35 per cent, and it followed a long period of below normal rainfall.
Most districts in the Kashmir Valley received more rain than usual. Baramulla recorded the highest surplus at 165 per cent, followed by Ganderbal at 110 per cent and Pulwama at 108 per cent. Srinagar and Anantnag each recorded a surplus of 71 per cent. Kulgam, Bandipora, Kupwara and Budgam recorded surpluses of 51, 33, 32 and six per cent respectively. Shopian was the only Valley district with a deficit, at 40 per cent.
Mohammad Anees, an environmentalist based in Kashmir, said temperature and rainfall conditions appear to have suited paddy in South Kashmir. Moisture was available during the key stages of crop growth, and the crop did not face long periods of water stress. He noted that last year’s rainfall was erratic and excessive, while this year’s was better spread across the season. He also warned that growing climate variability remains a concern for future farming.
The contrast with last year is sharp. In September, days of heavy rain submerged thousands of hectares across Jammu and Kashmir, damaging paddy fields and apple orchards. Rivers and streams flowed above the danger mark and flooded low lying farmland. Farmers said the water flattened standing paddy, washed away fertile soil and swept away orchards along with their trees.
When harvest time arrived, many fields were still under water. Farmers could not cut their crop, and some were forced to burn the standing paddy instead. For families who depend on rice for both food and income, it was a heavy blow.
A study by SKUAST Kashmir in 2020 found that paddy is grown on about 1.5 lakh (0.15 million) hectares in the Valley. In Pulwama district alone, 16,500 hectares are under paddy.
Even so, the long term trend gives cause for concern. The area under paddy in the Kashmir Division has fallen from approximately 1.69 lakh (0.169 million) hectares in 1980 to nearly 1.29 lakh (0.129 million) hectares in 2024. That is a reduction of about 40,000 hectares, or nearly 24 per cent. The area rose briefly to around 1.36 lakh (0.136 million) hectares in 2017, but it declined again in the years that followed. This suggests that the loss of paddy land is not a short term change. It points to a continuing shift in how farmland is used.
Better crop productivity has offset part of the decline, but it does not remove the worry. If paddy acreage keeps falling, a good harvest in one year cannot by itself secure the future of rice farming in the Valley.
For now, farmers in Kakapora, Awantipora and nearby villages are focused on bringing in the crop. Many say this season has restored some of their confidence. Officials say the final numbers will show how large the gain really is, and the Crop Cut Experiments will provide those figures once harvesting ends.
The season has shown how closely Kashmir’s rice farmers depend on the weather. A year of balanced rain and suitable temperatures has delivered a good yield, while a year of floods brought ruin. As the climate becomes less predictable, supporting resistant varieties, protecting paddy land and improving water access will matter as much as a good monsoon.
Arjumand Wani is a Kashmir-based multimedia journalist who frequently reports on climate change and environmental issues.