Himachal Pradesh is called the Apple State of India, with apples making up most of its horticultural output

Background

Himachal Pradesh, in India's north, is often called the Apple State of the country.
In 1950 the state had only 400 hectares of apple orchards; by 2023 this had expanded to 1,15,680 hectares.
Seventy percent of Himachal's population is engaged in agriculture, and apples constitute 80% of the state's horticultural output.
Around two lakh of the state's 6.15 lakh hectares of cultivated land are under fruit orchards, of which about half is under apple.
The World Bank-supported Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Development Project, under which the State set out to recast its apple cultivation in 2016, closed in October 2024; it directly empowered over 1.34 lakh people, including farmers, Water User Association members and entrepreneurs, with 34% of the enterprises women-owned.
The project helped establish 30 Farmer Producer Companies across six districts with a membership of over 12400 farmers, of whom 27% were women, taking up grading, packaging, processing, trading and cold storage.
New low-chill varieties have carried apple cultivation down to warmer, lower-altitude areas such as Solan District.