Alarming situation
Jammu and Kashmir has been lavishly bestowed with a wealth of resources by the nature, which if exploited judiciously will definitely unburden the people from seemingly unavoidable dependence on neighbouring states for essential commodities like food grains. The soil of the state is the most fertile in whole of the India and output is optimal per hectare when compared to many other states. The optimum beauty of the place reinforces sweetness in every crop and produce that grows around here.
Rice for instance, even though the kinds that are grown here have no match in terms of their sweetness in the rice that arrives here from other states at highly exorbitant prices, but that third-grade rice from elsewhere is nevertheless brought and consumed here. Understandably the people here have become so insensitive to the quality of food items that they gulp down anything provided to them notwithstanding the poor and injurious quality of the commodity. It is unfortunate that a society which was known for its refined tastes has lost the touch with its identity.
The appetizing flavour of the indigenous varieties of food materials have been replaced by insipid leftovers from other supplying states. But why has it all happened? The answer is simple. The rice bowels of the state are being filled by concrete which means that state loses productive land at rapid and rabid pace in comparison to the rise in population. It is a reverse trend here – at global level the rise in population sends people pouncing upon uncultivated land to squeeze food for themselves while here in Kashmir people obnoxiously are hell-bent over replacing cultivable land by concrete structures of least developmental value for the economy of the state.
According to a moderate calculation great many villages situated along roads or at the periphery of towns will disappear from the scene of productive land in near future leading to severe dependence on other states and putting the state at the risk of exploitation. There can be no alternative but to consume whatever rubbish is offered in the name of food-grains by neighbouring states. At a time when everyone outside this state has become quality conscious, the people here are deceiving their taste buds by shutting their eyes and thoughts, even though the natural wealth of land here is such that if treated generously this land has the capacity to satiate the demand of quality food-grains.
It is the insensitive attitude and non-seriousness of cultivators that the net of irrigation inlets and drains have been dislodged resulting in drought-like situation at many places and inundation of crop land at the other at times of dry weather or floods. The traditional methods of crop raising though antique have some good things with them and irrigation system being the prominent one. Tearing apart the traditional system of irrigation has compelled a number of farmers to shift over to horticulture. This unnecessary and unplanned shift has made the state more vulnerable to food crises in case supplying states face any problem to their crops. And what people in Jammu and Kashmir will be doing in future will be praying for the well-being of the fertility and hefty produce in the neighbouring states lest they face starvation. It is high time that people start thinking in terms of collective good and thereby put an end to all unhealthy trends that have over the years been carried out at the detriment of our agriculture.
