Kashmir’s Horticulture Department is introducing a new fruit, hazel nut, to avoid glut in the market at peak periods and give more return to the growers. Botanically known as Corylus (Sp. Vellana), hazel nut is a multi-stemmed bush which is different than other indigenous fruits. The nut is tolerable to temperature fluctuations and can thrive even at minus 10°C during the pollination. Also known as cob nuts, hazel is also unaffected by late spring frosts.

Department of Horticulture is disseminating the hazel nut plant in a planned manner across the state this year. About 3000 plants of the fruit have been proposed to be planted in north Kashmir's Kupwara district alone, Director Horticulture, Nazir Ahmad Wani told etala'at. Hazel nuts, he said, were introduced in the state under a project in collaboration with Italy during 1982. The department has 'compact’ orchard of hazel nut at Lehniwan in south Kashmir's Islamabad district.

"Since its arrival here in 1982, the fruit trees have reached bearing stage and about five quintals of fruit has been produced 466 fruit trees at the orchard", Wani added.
"Such type of nuts if cultivated in the far-flung and higher reaches will not only fetch good market prices but will be easily managed by the growers for sending the produce to the terminal markets", the horticulturalist said.

He said that hazel nuts are extensively used in confectionaries and also in combination with chocolates for spread than its better counterpart, the pi nut.
The tree also requires small maintenance as "majority of the common hazel nuts are propagated from root sprouts." Being organic, this fruit does not require any pest control measures. The fruit is a nut, produced in a cluster of one to five. Each nut held in a short leafy involucre (husk) which encloses about three quarters of the nut which is roughly spherical to oval, 15-20 mm long and 12-20 mm broad (larger, up to 25 mm long, in some cultivated selections. The nut falls out of the involucre when ripe, about 7-8 months after pollination.

The fruit has a good nutritive value and is rich in proteins and unsaturated fats. "They contain significant amount of thiamin and vitamin-B6 as well as some amount of other vitamins", a senior scientist at the SK University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) said. The fruit is also useful for a person who needs restricted carbohydrates, as a cup of hazel nut floor, he said, has 20 gm of carbohydrates and 12 gm of fibre.

Wani, the Director Horticulture, said the introduction of the rare and new fruit crop is being preferred under "zonalization programme."
"The introduction of this fruit is made with an intension to avert glut in the market at peak periods and to boost diversification", he said. The main hazelnut producing countries are Turkey, Italy, Spain, USA and Greece. Turkey is the first world hazelnut producer and exporter.