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| Farmers shift to horticulture in Kashmir | | Reap more benefits | | Sunaina Malik (Rajouri) | 2/6/2015 11:37:27 PM |
| Mudasir Tariq
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 6: Success stories emanating from the horticulture industry has encouraged the people from agriculture industry to say goodbye to their traditional occupation and take up horticulture as their fresh occupation.
Kashmiri farmers' appetite to earn more money from horticulture has led to the fast decline of agricultural land. Over the last two decades a huge area of agricultural land has been converted into horticultural land as farmers seek to earn more revenue against horticultural products.
Since the horticulture brings six times greater economy than agriculture, more and more people tend to change the land patterns. According to economic survey, the agriculture land in Kashmir has shrunk by two lakh hectares since 1996.
The survey reports that 10 lakh hectares were under agriculture production during 1995-96 which has reduced to 8 lakh hectares in 2013-14.
The farmers attribute the process of land shift to the climatic changes and failure on part of the government to provide facilities to improve the agricultural production. "In Kashmir the agriculture products are produced on ancient techniques. We are still dependent on nature to produce the crop; there is no innovation in the field. Government makes no arrangement for water supply and we are still dependent on traditional pattern of farming even in this scientific era. I planted trees on agricultural land which relatively requires fewer water supplies. At lesser efforts, I earn good money" said Abdul Aziz, a farmer. Experts in Kashmir are worried at the rapid conversion of paddy lands for horticulture use, the fields that were once flourishing farming lands.
"From 1972 to 2013 80,000 hectares of agricultural land has been converted into horticulture. This process has reduced the food capacity of Kashmir. At present Kashmir is 50 percent food deficient, means that we import 50 percent of food from the other states that is distributed across the length and breadth of Kashmir," said Dr. Shakeel Ahmad Romshoo, HOD Earth Sciences, University of Kashmir.Romshoo said that that if people continue to bring more and more agricultural land into horticulture, Kashmir will be more food deficient in the near future. "If the land conversion continues to be at the present pace, by the end of this century, we will have to import eighty percent of food from outside."
Even though the horticulture brings more economic benefits to the farmers, it has its ill effects as well. Romshoo held that reckless use of pesticides on the fruits has resulted in the increasing rate of cancers in farmers."Horticulture in Kashmir means continuous use of pesticides. Already, the use of these chemicals has been associated with the increasing frequency of brain tumors and cancers among the rural areas in Kashmir. This is a dangerous trend if not addressed well, shall make debauched effects in the long run," Romshoo added. |
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