State to go big on tulip cultivation

Farmers to be trained from November

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Unlike Kashmir, the tulips can’t reproduce in the plains of India where we have a huge demand for them. So, we are going to start the cultivation of tulips in Kashmir to such a level that we can sell them in the rest of India and also export them -- Dr Nasir Masoodi, principal investigator, skuast

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 22

Come April and colourful tulips will be blossoming in the rural Kashmir. In the next few years, India will no longer have to import tulips from Netherland as the J&K Government is training farmers to cultivate them in a big way in Kashmir.

The Valley is described by experts as a suitable place for the cultivation of temperate ornamental bulbs. To grow tulips on a commercial scale in Kashmir, the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) is going to train farmers from November.

In the first phase, SKUAST will train 20 farmers each from Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara, Ganderbal and Budgam districts, said principal investigator, SKUAST, Dr Nasir Masoodi.

Masoodi said the farmers would be provided training-cum-demonstration on precision farming intervention for elite tulip and hyacinth bulb production.

He said India annually imported nearly 100 containers of bulbs from Netherland, which had three crore tulip bulbs. Each container carries three lakh tulip bulbs and each bulb costs Rs 15 to 20, he said.

“Unlike Kashmir, the tulips can’t reproduce in the plains of India, where we have a huge demand for them. So, we are going to start the cultivation of tulips in Kashmir to such a level that we can sell them in the rest of India and also export them,” he said.

As the demand for the tulips, lilium and hyacinth grows in the plains of India, Masoodi says the concern is how to reduce the import and reach to minimum cost.

“In November, the farmers will plant tulip bulbs which will grow in cold conditions of winter before giving flowers in April,” he said.

The decision to grow the tulips in Kashmir has come after “commendable work at different altitudes” has been carried out on bulb production by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research-sponsored Extramural Scheme.

After the training, the farmers will get financial help from the Union Department of Biotechnology under the Rashtriya Kisan Vikas Yojna.