Dr Banarsi Lal
Agriculture is the key sector for income and employment generation in J&K. This sector is considered as the backbone of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as it provides employment directly or indirectly to about 70 per cent of its inhabitants. Thus this sector continues to remain as an important sector for the socio-economic upliftment of the people. Jammu and Kashmir is a mountainous Union Territory in which Jammu region is predominantly sub-tropical while Kashmir is temperate. The average size of land holding of J&K is only 0.67 hectare against 1.33 hectares’ land holding size on national basis. Only 30 per cent of the area of J&K is under cultivation. Jammu and Kashmir is located between 32.17 and 37.06 North latitude and 73.2 and 80.36 East longitude in the Himalayan region. The agro-diversity of the state varies from sub-tropical in Jammu region and temperate in Kashmir region. The average annual rainfall of these two regions is 1069mm and 660mm respectively. The average temperature of these two regions is 24.5 and 13.3 Centigrade respectively. There is dire need to increase the income and employment in agriculture and allied sectors for the farmers in J&K. There is possibility to increase the production and productivity of the crops and to enable the farmers to diversify their crop production. By adopting the modern technologies in agriculture and establishing the infrastructure for the farm production. There is need to promote the diversification in agriculture and move towards high value crops like vegetables, aromatic and medicinal plants, saffron, mushroom, beekeeping, silkworms, pulses etc.
J&K is endowed with ample natural resources including soil, water, climatic condition, diversity, topography, rich natural flora etc. which are conducive for the cultivation of a wide range of crops. It is matter of grave concern that the interest of younger generation in J&K is dwindling towards agriculture. About 58 per cent area under agriculture in J&K is rain fed and remaining 42 per cent is irrigated. Maize is first rank crop in J&K occupying one-third of the total cropped area, rice at number second and wheat at number three of the total cropped area. There is dire need of strenuous efforts to make agriculture more profitable and more income and employment can be generated among the farmers. The horticulture sector in J&K accounts for 13 per cent of the net sown area but contributes about 45 per cent of J&K agricultural GDP. Around six lakh families comprising of 30 lakh people are directly or indirectly involved in horticulture trade. Horticulture sector helps in nutritional security, land productivity, employment, exports and farm incomes by offering a wide range of choice to the farmers for crop diversification. The varied agro-climatic zones in J&K make it ideal to grow diverse high value horticultural crops. The forward and backward linkages offer tremendous potential for employment generation and rural upliftment in J&K. Horticultural sector contributes immensely to strengthen the financial condition of Jammu and Kashmir. Around 20 per cent area of J&K is under horticultural crops. Horticultural sector contributes around 10,000 crores to the annual income of Jammu and Kashmir. Among the horticultural crops in J&K apple occupies the predominant position constituting around 45 per cent of the total area under fruit crops. Horticultural activities major thrust is given in hilly areas. The fruit crops grown in J&K are almonds, walnuts, pears, cherries and apricots in temperate areas and mango, citrus, litchi, ber, papaya, guava etc. in subtropical areas. Saffron is the costliest spice of the world. Saffron cultivation in Jammu and Kashmir is unique in the world.
The annual production of Saffron in Jammu and Kashmir ranges from 10 to 20 tonnes. J&K government has made strenuous efforts to increase horticultural crops production. Incentives are given to the horticultural crops growers by the departments of J&K to develop orchards in Kandi and hilly areas. Subsidy to the extent of 50 per cent of fruit plants and inputs used by the farmer are provided.
It has been observed that about 40 lakh tones of fruits are exported annually from J&K.
This sector contributes significantly to the economic and ecological development, employment generation, export and nutritional requirement of the people of J&K. Since Jammu and Kashmir is endowed with different agro-climatic conditions and topography, the scope for strengthening various commercial horticultural activities is enormous. Agricultural policies involve the government, different organizations and the farmers.
The government aims in maximization of agricultural outputs on sustainable basis. The agricultural universities and research institutions give policy inputs and the government departments prepare the action plans on the basis of programmes and make efforts to achieve the objectives of the government. The farmers make endeavors to maximize their farm income and employment.
The planning policies which are top down in approach decide on macroeconomic basis, assuming that the farmers would adopt them or could be induced to adopt. The general policy of government for agricultural development can be summarized in terms of (a)supply of inputs like High Yielding Varieties(HYS) seeds, fertilizers and insecticides-pesticides at reasonable rates;(b) supply of water, credits and electricity at subsidized rates; and (c)fixing of minimum support price for important food grains and other crops along with procurement system for wheat and rice.
The farmers have responded to these policies by allocating higher acreage under wheat and paddy crops which have least risk of yield as well as price. In the nineties after reaching plateau in wheat and rice yields, some progressive farmers started to increase the production of floriculture crops, vegetables and fruit crops, citrus, strawberry and even in mushroom cultivation. The policy of diversification has been loaded with objectives like checking degradation of soil health, sustaining the land productivity, checking decrease in level of water table and waterlogging, controlling the use of insecticides and pesticides, decreasing the water pollution, maintaining the ecological balance and increasing production of crops.
The farmer thinks for the short term benefits. The continuous increase in area under wheat and rice in spite of echoing of the above mentioned considerations clearly proves the fallacy of this policy of diversification. The support price with procurement arrangement has been revealed as the most important instrumental variables in influencing the acreage allocation decisions of the farmers.
The acreage planning for individual crops is widely used as a management tool by almost all the developed countries. Acreage planning requires realistic estimates of the acreage under individual crops at national level on the basis of domestic and export demand of the concerned crops. The level of production and acreage can be fixed for different crops at national level so as to fetch a market price reasonably above the cost of production. Apex organizations in J&K have made commendable achievements through research and extension but still there is an immense scope for further improvement to increase production and productivity of different crops in J&K. Efforts need to be made for further exploration of high yielding varieties, production of quality planting material, canopy management, high density plantation of fruit crops, rejuvenation technology and water harvesting. Different state and centrally sponsored schemes/programmes can change the fate of agriculture scenario in J&K. Emphasis should be given on crop husbandry as food security and diversification are indispensable. Technologies developed through Front Line demonstration (FLDs) and On-Farm-Trials (OFTs) should be disseminated to the farmers through main extension system of J&K.
There is need to change the outlook of the farming community form traditional agriculture to diversified agriculture.
(The author is Head, KVK Reasi, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural
Sciences and Technology-Jammu).
