Himachal Pradesh’s 5,000 crore apple economy is facing a sharp climate squeeze this year, with unseasonal rains, hailstorms and erratic weather set to cut production by nearly 40%.Back in 2025, the state’s apple output stood at 6.99 lakh metric tonnes. However, in 2026, production is projected to decline by 2.63 lakh metric tonnes, or nearly 2.15 crore boxes, to around 4.36 lakh metric tonnes, officials said on Monday.According to the horticulture department, the downturn has been driven by a mix of adverse weather conditions, including insufficient winter snowfall, untimely spring rains, hailstorms and fluctuating temperatures. Apple cultivation remains the backbone of the farm economy across eight districts of the state.
Climate shock hits apple output in Himachal
Horticulture dept director Satish Kumar said that the current area under apple cultivation stands at around 1.16 lakh hectares, accounting for nearly 49% of the state’s total fruit crop area of 2.37 lakh hectares.“The area under apple cultivation is about 1.16 lakh acres (about 49 per cent of the total area under fruit crops, which is 2.37 lakh hectares) and production was 6.99 lakh MT in 2025, which is estimated to drop to 4.36 lakh MT during 2026,” said Director Horticulture, Satish Kumar.The decline is expected to affect around 2.5 lakh families associated with apple farming. Growers said rising cultivation costs, driven by higher prices of medicines and machinery, have further added to their concerns. Stone fruit crops have also suffered losses due to adverse weather conditions.“The apple production this year has declined due to unfavourable weather conditions as neither snow nor rains came on time,” said apple orchardist Balwant Justa. “Due to a lack of irrigation facilities, we are dependent on the weather”, he added.Orchardists have appealed to the government to improve irrigation infrastructure and increase awareness about crop insurance schemes so that farmers can recover at least part of their losses.Kumar said that Himachal Pradesh’s apple economy, valued at around Rs 5,000 crore, is likely to shrink in proportion to the decline in production this year. He added that stone fruit production has also been affected by global warming, climate change and rising temperatures of 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius, although growers are still receiving good returns.
The area under apple cultivation has expanded substantially over the decades, rising from 400 hectares in 1950-51 to 1,16,338 hectares in 2024-25. An additional 27,386 hectares are under stone fruit cultivation.
Fruits and farmers under strain
For stone fruits, including apricot, cherry, peach and plum, cultivation covers 17,306 hectares. Production is expected to decline marginally from 24,622 last year to around 23,000 this year.Apple grower Virender Singh said higher temperatures, inadequate chilling hours, hailstorms, rising input costs and declining production have all combined to create challenges for orchardists.According to Harish Chauhan, president of the Fruit Vegetable Flower Growers Association, traditional apple varieties require between 1,200 and 1,600 chilling hours at temperatures below 7 degrees Celsius, while early varieties require around 600 chilling hours.Another orchardist, Raghubeer Singh Chauhan, said that “income is going down and it is becoming difficult to sustain on farming as we are dependent on the weather, and there is a dire need to strengthen irrigation facilities. We are also not aware of the crop insurance schemes”.
