SKUAST develops new varieties of wheat,maize; boosts crop rotation

At present,J&K gets 40 per cent of its requirements of paddy,maize and wheat from other parts of the country. To meet the shortfall,the government also brings lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains from northern states.

Vice-Chancellor,SKUAST,Anwar Alam said there are large tracts of fertile land in Kashmir but with no crop rotation in practice the paddy production here is never more than 2.5 tonnes per hectare.

“Last year,we developed short duration varieties of wheat and maize seeds and started crop rotation on 5,000 kanals of land. The per hectare production of maize,wheat and paddy registered a substantial jump,” he said.

Alam said the experiments showed that we could reap up to 7 to 7.5 tonnes of wheat and paddy from the same land that used to yield only 2.5 tonnes.

“Along with the state’s agriculture department,we have carried out the crop rotation experiments in all the districts. Everywhere,the results were very encouraging.”

He said the SKUAST this year is bringing large portions of land under crop rotation system. “In the next 5-10 years,if the rotation is conducted in every district of the Valley,we will be self-sufficient and will not need to import foodgrain from other states.”

Despite losing huge land to urbanisation,officials said that at present 1.40 lakh hectares of land is under paddy cultivation and 1.80 lakh hectares under maize and wheat cultivation.

“The rotation crop system will usher in a revolution in the state. It was a small beginning,which has now been implemented at a very large scale from this year,” said Associate Director,Research,SKUAST,Dr Shafiq Wani.

Director,Agriculture,Mian Abdul Majid confirmed that successful trials of rotation crop have been done in different parts the Valley. “These trials were only possible after SKUAST developed short duration varieties of wheat and maize seeds. This year,we are bringing large portion of lands under the rotation crop system.”

He said the department was trying to produce sufficient amount of short duration seeds that will be distributed among the farmers across the state. “We are trying to create a seed bank of these newly developed varieties. Once that is done,the programme will be taken to every village of the state.”

Mian Majid said it was about time the Valley produced enough paddy to ensure its food safety. “Food security is going to become a huge issue and we need to safeguard our food production. A time will come when import of foodgrain will become difficult; this is an endeavour to prepare our farming community for the same.”

The farmers too are upbeat about crop rotation. “Initially we were apprehensive that the crop rotation will not work. But after crop rotation,I could produce 4.5 tonnes of paddy and three tonnes of wheat from the same portion of land that used to produce 2 to 2.5 tonnes of paddy in a single sowing,” said Abdul Ahad Sheikh,a farmer in Nadihal’s Rafiabad village.