Jammu to Switch to Organic Farming, With 800 Hectares
Posted by Unknown in Jammu and Kashmir, Organic Farming, Saffron on Monday 28 January 2013
To
explore markets elsewhere in the country and abroad for its saffron,
basmati rice and rajmash among various other agricultural produce, the
Jammu-Kashmir government is adopting organic farming in a systematic
manner.
(Indian Express)
It has identified 800 hectares of agricultural land in the hilly
districts of Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban, besides the plains of Jammu, and
entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently with three
private service providers — New Delhi-based M/s International Panaacea
Ltd, Jaipur-based M/s M R Morarka-GDC Rural Research Foundation and the
Jammu-based M/s Sarveshwar Organic Foods Ltd.
These
service providers will not only bring the earmarked land under organic
farming, but also ensure certification of the agricultural produce and
its marketing. The firms will be paid Rs 1.60 crore by the state
government over a period of three years.
Significantly,
farming is already semi-organic by default in large tracts of
cultivable lands across the state, especially higher reaches of
Kishtwar, Udhampur, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Poonch, Rajouri and Kathua
districts. Though a large number of crops are grown there without or
with little use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in view of the
temperate climate, the agricultural yield so produced needs
certification, officials point out.
The
motive behing organic farming along commercial and scientific lines,
according to State’s Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, is to make
farming sustainable in the state where people have small land holdings.
Under organic farming, there is a good scope for Basmati rice, which is
grown on over 35,000 hectares of land in the state and has a production
of over 88,000 metric tonnes, besides rajmash, pulses, saffron, peas and
potato, which are cultivated in temperate areas during the Kharif
season, Mir said.
The
entire exercise is aimed at tapping the increased inclination among
consumers world over towards organic agricultural products in view of
their environmental, health and nutritious advantages. As these fetch
higher remunerations to the growers, the shift also intends to arrest
the growing trend among rural youth looking at urban areas for jobs.
The
minimum period for conversion of the 800 hectares of land across Jammu
region into organic farming has been fixed as three years, says
Director, Agriculture, Ajay Khajuria. However, the places where farming
is already organic or semi-organic by default, the minimum period can be
reduced, he added.
