Farmers in India’s Kashmir region have been advised by agricultural scientists to grow kiwifruit vines instead of hops because they are better earners and free of religious stigma.
Kiwifruit are easier to cultivate and have better returns, the Rising Kashmir reported Fayaz Ahmad Banday, head of the pomology division at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology as saying.
“Our farmers should not cultivate hops as nowadays we have more crops and fruits that are commercially better,” he said.
Hop production was scaled back in the 1990s, and Mr Banday said it was not feasible to start cultivating the crop again.
Hops are also considered haraam (forbidden) in India, according to some religious bodies, because of their use in beer brewing.
