With the soil still soggy from the season’s heavy rains, Mohammed Ashraf trod carefully through his apple orchard in Pulwama, in India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. He stopped by each tree, not to pick fruit but to examine how many had fallen since his last inspection and lay decaying on the ground.
Extreme rainfall in August here caused widespread flooding and a landslide that left debris blocking 300 meters, or about a fifth of a mile, of a highway that connects the region to the rest of the country, shutting Mr. Ashraf off from his customers. So far, he has lost 80 percent of his crop.
The authorities shut the highway for almost two weeks in late August, and restricted heavy trucks from using the road through Sept. 17, to make repairs. That left harvested apples, packed in boxes and loaded onto trucks, stranded. They began to rot, and the crop still in the region’s orchards went unpicked.
Kashmir, which is disputed by Pakistan and India, supplies more than 70 percent of India’s apples — more than two million tons — that are taken by road to the markets. Kullu Delicious and Red Delicious, which are the most commonly grown varieties, are harvested in September. Apples contribute about 10 percent to the region’s economy, with seven million people in the region depending on the trade for their livelihood.
But apples are perishable and — without refrigerated trucks — must reach their destination in two to three days, growers say, or they go bad. The cost of apples lost this season has reached more than $226 million and is still climbing, said Bashir Ahmad Bashir, chairman of Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers and Dealers Union.
Just two months ago, Mr. Ashraf, the apple farmer, was a hopeful man. He had a good crop this year from his one-acre orchard and expected to make a profit of $4,600. Then came the rains in August, heavier and earlier than expected. Some of his produce was lost in the deluge, but he still had plenty to sell and make a comfortable profit. Then he heard the highway was closed, and he lost hope. He stopped picking the apples.
“Where do I send them after harvesting?” he asked.
Each day he waited for the highway to reopen cost him dearly, as more and more apples fell to the ground.
The highway, carved through mountains, is narrow and precarious for vast stretches with a steep cliff on one side and a deep precipice on the other. Signboards caution: “Blind curve ahead. Drive carefully.”
After frustrated farmers and traders protested about how long it was taking to reopen the road, the authorities expedited repair work and heavy vehicles began to be allowed along it again last week. But within a day, there was a line of hundreds of trucks backed up for miles.
Shabir Ahmed Mir was stuck on one stretch of the road in Qazigund, near Pulwama, which is known as the gateway to Kashmir. His 10-tire truck was laden with 1,500 boxes, each containing 18 kilograms, or 40 pounds, of apples, and the air was thick with the smell of fermenting fruit.
His journey to Rajasthan would usually take 36 hours, but one day after his truck was loaded, he had not gotten far. On either side of the road, there were heaps of rotting apples that had been dumped by drivers. Traffic was stopped at checkpoints, sometimes for hours, to ensure the highway was not choked and further damaged, police said.
Mr. Mir had abandoned a previous trip after getting stuck for six days. Since he had not delivered the fruit, he was not paid for it. “I have lost two weeks’ worth of income,” he said.
To open the highway, a surface of boulders was laid over the landslide debris for the vehicles to cross, said Shubham Yadav, an engineer of the National Highways Authority of India. Clearing the earth and rocks to restore the road fully would have taken 30 to 40 days.
“But because of regular rains, the soil is soft and the boulders are sinking, forcing us to remake the surface again and again,” he said.
On Sept. 11, rail service was started with much fanfare to transport apples. But Mr. Bashir, the head of the fruit growers union, said the two cargo coaches allotted can only carry the equivalent of about 50 trucks, while the region sends 1,500 trucks every day to different parts of the country.
Any relief will come too slowly for Mr. Ashraf, who had taken a loan of $600 to pay for fertilizer, pesticide and labor to work on his orchard. Not only will he be unable to repay it, but he will also need to take out a further loan to invest next year.
He continues to grow apples even when the yield is unpredictable year on year. His father and grandfather grew apples, and his son does too.
“I am a farmer. What other option do I have?” Mr. Ashraf asked. “This year was a complete loss. Let’s see what happens next year,” he said. “It’s God’s will.”