Abstract

Juglans regia L. is one of the high yielding dry fruit crops grown in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir in India. Jammu and Kashmir UT is the largest walnut production and supply in India’s share of total production. But in recent times, there has been a decline in India’s export of walnuts, largely as a result of the importing of walnuts from China and California. Consumer acceptance of walnuts from California and China is higher than that of J&K walnuts, which negatively impacts the Indian walnut trade. Besides this, various other factors like less awareness to local fruit growers, highway connectivity, cutting of tress for timber, introduction of hybrid varieties, and other human interferences also contributed to less export and production of J&K Walnut. There are great challenges in J&K fruit industry to cope up with these problems and increase the quality fruit production in J&K. This current study is a special case report on walnut based on present trends and secondary data, exploring the walnut industry sector and marketing in J&K.

Keywords: Walnut; Horticulture; Challenges; Marketing; J&K

Abbreviations:UT: Union of Territory; MT: Metric Tonnes; M: Metres; G: Grams; Cm: Centimeters; JKKT: Jammu Kashmir Kisan Tehreek