author(s)
Zahoor Ahmad Shah, Dr. Rekhi Singh, Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Dar, Rufaida Mir, Jehangir Muzaffar Matoo and Dr. Mohd Afzal Beigh

abstract
The present study was conducted in district Shopian of Jammu and Kashmir with the size of 180 respondents. The district Shopian was purposively selected, because of the potentiality for the development of horticulture, mainly because 90 percent area of the district was under apple plantation. The data was collected from three different altitudes viz- low, medium and high altitudes, and it has been revealed that majority of the apple growers were having medium level of knowledge regarding different components of the apple cultivation (plant production, plant protection and harvesting, post harvesting and marketing) except the value addition aspect wherein apple growers were having low knowledge level, so it is explicit that apple growers were not cultivating apple in accordance with the recommended practices. The study revealed that the knowledge level of low altitude fruit growers was high, followed by mid altitude fruit growers, while it was of very low level in case of fruit growers of high altitude areas.