Srinagar village turns into city’s veggie basket

Umar Ahmad

Srinagar, January 19

Residents of Shunglipora, a village on the outskirts of the city, have turned their agricultural land — previously used for rice cultivation — into vegetable farms, making it the main source of income.

The village is now one of the major producers of vegetables in the city and almost 98 per cent of the village population is engaged in farming with daily production of 40 to 50 quintals of vegetables.

Despite shorter sunny days and limited scope for practising agriculture, the villagers manage a way of farming throughout the year. “We cultivatea variety of vegetables in different seasons. The vegetables include radishes, carrots, cucumbers, onions and potatoes,” Farooq Ahmad, a local farmer, said.

The village has been officially notified as an ‘organic village’ by the Agriculture Department this year and Rs 5 lakh has been allotted to it which benefited 75 farmers under the first phase.

All the produce from Shunglipora is consumed by the local market. The Agriculture Department has listed Shunglipora village as a part of the city’s Noorbagh circle which is comprised of seven villages and has 108 hectares of land under vegetable cultivation. In Shunglipora, 53 hectares are under vegetable cultivation.

An official of the Agriculture Department said the Noorbagh circle had an annual production of 51,954 quintals of different varieties of vegetables.

“The annual turnover is around Rs 7.8 crore. It can be more than that because we don’t quantify the production on a daily basis,” Farooq Ahmad, Subdivisional Officer, Agriculture Department, said.

“There are possibilities of more development in the farming sector which can boost the production,” he said.

Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, lambardar of Shunglipora, however, said the village lacked proper irrigation. “We a have single irrigation pump which has a big catchment area and is not sufficient to irrigate our farms. Most of the time, our crops are damaged because of lack of water.”

Huge daily output

• Shunglipora village is now one of the major producers of vegetables in the city and almost 98 per cent of its population is engaged in farming. It produces 40 to 50 quintals of vegetables daily 
• Despite shorter sunny days and limited scope for practising agriculture, the villagers manage a way of farming throughout the year