Interview Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal

 Bumper increase in Vegetable production a great development for agriculture in Kashmir :Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal

Agriculture is the mainstay of Kashmir . To talk on burning issues confronting our agriculture , Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal talks to Senior Correspondent Mirror of Kashmir Rameez Makhdoomi .

Sir , you recently revived different schemes going on with reference to promotion of agriculture and farmers in Kashmir . Your overview on that ?

As far as taking review is concerned  Department of agriculture is concerned with the welfare of more than 70 percent of people engaged in agriculture , and in this regard taking implementation progress of these schemes is must . We have here two main cropping seasons Kharif and Rabi .Kharif crop can be grown in Kharif season only and similarly Rabi Crop can be grown in Rabi only . If we do not take constant review we can't know what is needed ,when we grow paddy , Sweet corn , maize crop we need to know what intervention and incentives are needed. All these crop sowing has fixed time so we marked Kharif Campaign with reference to Maize crop from Karnah on 13 April , 2021 and Paddy transplanting day on 21 June ,2021 so that we achieve paddy transplanting day before 21 June as any delay in paddy transplanting would hit production.

We were sucessful in our mission and with our reviews able to know what intervention and incentives are needed .

The area coverage we had given to our human resource with reference to area coverage of paddy , sweet corn and seed distribution of these . 

We also took serious review of cottage industry like Mushroom , we had mushroom cultivation only once year abd with our efforts this year we were able to grown mushroom six times year , we are also looking to get much improved varieties of mushroom from Solan .We are highly proud that agriculture department staff was able to complete all extension targets much efficiently . We would be following same dynamism in the Rabi season .

What is your take on the painful loss of agricultural land to land mafia and rampant construction activities in Kashmir in last few decades ?

The role of agriculture department in this regard is advisory and I agree that we have lost lot of agriculture land . We are having role of awareness and that we are playing telling masses that to preserve land for agriculture and horticulture activities . 

As per the land classification , 

 The land from Class 1 to Class 4 the agriculture crops should be grown and from Class 5 to Class 6 land horticulture should be taken up and from Class 7 to Class 8 land we can take construction activities and grow forests as well . This is a integrated effort , revenue department has land record and has a major role to play agriculture land .We all should play a role to agriculture land . For the sake of our youth and for food security we all need to make effort to end encroachment of agriculture land . 

How critical is role of agriculture to end unemployment in our part of the World ?

In Kashmir region importance vise I would give  hundred out of hundred marks to the agriculture and it's allied sectors when it comes to providing meaningful employment avenues to the youth . Agriculture is biggest hope of youth of Kashmir .

 What varieties of crop and seed we have currently ?

We at our agriculture University are concerned with providing us quality variety of seeds and our focus is on providing seeds that are suited to the local conditions best . We have huge quality diversity in rice and hybrid varieties from maize to vegetables currently .

Has our vegetable production improved ?

Yes bumper increase in Vegetable production  has been a great development for agriculture of Kashmir due to joint great hard work of farmers and Department of agriculture . We have achieved much efficiency in the production of exotic and organic vegetables . Where our supremacy comes that at this juncture when we have moonsoon in the country and due to lot of water no vegetable cultivation  happens there for few months . We send peas from Kashmir to Gujrat and also Garlic to other parts of India . We did a memorandum of understanding with Ladakh at the time of deficiency we would be providing them vegetables . Our vegetables have gone to Mumbai , Delhi , Gujarat and number of places . Exotic and organic vegetables export to foreign countries under Parwaz Scheme is our ambition .