Srinagar: Farmers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district are in joy after harvesting bumper paddy crops this year thanks to timely rainfall and better weather conditions.
Not only farmers, but officials of the Agriculture Department are jubilant too as the paddy output is expected to break a 20-year record.
“Our paddy production used to be 74 quintals per hectare and this year we expect it will cross 80 quintals per hectare,” Agriculture Department Director Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal told UNI. “I don’t think such a bumper crop production has taken place in Kashmir during the past 15-20 years.”
“This year, due to sufficient rainfall, farmers look to be very happy as they are harvesting a bumper crop,” said a farmer, Ali Mohammad.
Ali said the crop was beyond their expectations this year.
However, Ali expressed dismay over most farmers using their land for commercial purposes and planting apple trees in the paddy fields that are squeezing the size of agricultural land every passing year.
But another farmer, Nisar Ahmad from Trikolbal Pattan in Baramulla district, said due to insufficient rainfall and hot weather the paddy crop was 25 percent less than what they harvested last year. But he said it was satisfactory for the entire hamlet of about 1,000 homes.
Village Trikolbal is famous for harvesting paddy crop due to its soil and environment conditions.
In April, the Flood and Irrigation Department told farmers to avoid sowing paddy owing to dry spell.
The Agriculture said Irrigation Department had apprehensions of dry weather at certain areas of Sopore, Kupwara and Anantnag.
“With the grace of the Almighty, during June and July, there was 230 mm of rainfall as compared to usually 120 mm to the delight of the farmers,” an official said. “This year the paddy crop is one of the best in recent years,”
