![The farmers appealed to the authorities to set up a water pump shed in the area so that they could irrigate their farms. [Image for representational purpose only]](https://gumlet.assettype.com/greaterkashmir%2F2021-11%2Fa463bf3a-59aa-440e-956b-6877a7870ddf%2FApple_harvesting_in_Kashmir___8_.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
Shopian: Scores of farmers at a village in south Kashmir's Shopian district are facing tremendous hardships in absence of irrigation facilities.
Large tracts of Karewa land in Chitragam village of the district are without irrigation facilities, spurring the farmers to irrigate their farms manually.
Mubashir Ahmad Bhat, whose apple farm sprawled over 10 kanals said that he had to traverse a distance of over a kilometre to fetch water to spray his orchard.
"It becomes hard to protect our orchards from pests as we are not able to spray adequately our orchards", Bhat said.
He said that some farmers press water pump sets into service to irrigate or spray their fields.
"The absence of irrigation facilities have jacked up our input farming costs", Bhat said.
Muzafar Ahmad, another apple grower said that they could not irrigate their farms properly.
"We completely rely on weather. We cannot irrigate our orchards in case there are low rains", Ahmad said.
He said that the lack of irrigation has an direct impact on the apple production, which is the main source of the income of people.
It is pertinent to mention here that more than 80 percent of the people in the district earn their livelihood through apple farming.
The farmers appealed to the authorities to set up a water pump shed in the area so that they could irrigate their farms.
