SAHIL MANZOOR
Government has taken several initiatives to eradicate the shortage of vegetables and fruits during the winters. Due to health benefits and containing immense, rich nutrients, like vitamins, carbohydrates, fiber, etc. prior to the arrival of winters, vegetables are being kept on priority by the administration. A recent study by ‘Biodiversity of International Scientists in collaboration with the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations’ revealed that there are about 1,100 vegetable species with a great variety of uses and growth forms cultivated throughout the globe. Vegetables and fruits are the essential food items for the healthy survival of humans.
In Kashmir valley winters are very harsh, survival of life gets very hard. There are so many reasons behind that, our farmers are not well equipped by the concerned authorities to minimise the shortage of vegetables during this period. Nowadays, in Kashmir valley the prices for essential home commodities are skyrocketing, this is very unfortunate and unacceptable for the consumers. People are suffering and ailing from different nutrient deficiency diseases. Pulses, dried vegetables are also used in winters but during the studies it has been found that dried vegetables are not good for health and there are chances of getting ill by consuming them.
The Horticulture department plays an important role, holding awareness programmes during the sectional cultivation of vegetable and fruit varieties in the valley. As we are well aware about the fact that most of our farmers are not well educated but work on the basis ofexperiences for which this class deserves appreciation and should be brought under beneficial schemes and provided with highly advanced equipment, carriages, sprayers, fertilizers of good quality so the yielding capacity increases.
The Horticulture department has been coming up with schemes and the latest is the installation of miniature greenhouses besides providing farmers an amount of 10,000 (ten thousand) as subsidiary. The scheme briefs the grower’s needs to submit an application, after the approval from the concerned authorities the beneficiary has to credit an amount of Rs21,000 into the account of horticulture department. After the installation of the greenhouse shed, Rs10,000 are credited into the account of the beneficiary. This is quite beneficial for the growers. The department should also provide expert and trained staff who could guide the beneficiary and provide proper counseling to them on how to grow seasonal vegetables and what are the do’s and don’ts of a greenhouse.
The farmers do not know how to prepare saplings for the greenhouse shed and how to yield adequate quantities of seasonal vegetables. Greenhouses are widely used throughout the world for the sapling of vegetables and for gardening purposes. In large flowering gardens greenhouse sheds are very useful and benefit the farmers on a large scale.
Throughout the world, Greenhouses are used to grow tomatoes, coriander, table radish and typical flowers. A greenhouse keeps warm inside during winters and greenhouse gases like co2 (carbon dioxide), nitrous oxide, methane (ch4), trap the reflected sunlight and warms the greenhouse shed inside.
There are still a large number of farmers who have not explored the scheme or have not even known about the scheme. The concerned horticulture department should hold more informative programmes and the general public should be informed via local village bodiesbesides multimedia formats. Seasonal seeds, fertilizers of good quality should be given to the growers on subsidiary rates so that the scheme reaches its maximum potential.
