Incessant rains which lashed Kashmir valley from past several days have affected 50 per cent crop production, experts said Tuesday. They believe the situation could worsen if weather continues to remain wet.

“The inclement weather conditions have damaged 50 percent of Rabi crops. We have directed our concerned district officers to submit the report pertaining to damage to Rabi crops due to incessant rains,” Director Agriculture, Peerzada Mushtaq Ahmad said adding the report would be submitted to government accordingly for further necessary action.

Peerzada said due to water logging Kharif crops have also been impacted. “Most of the Kharif crops are under water, if rain continues for some more days it can delay crop harvesting as compared to normal season.”

Peerzada said due to inclement weather vegetable sowing has also been delayed.

“Sowing of vegetable seeds is our major concern. If weather conditions will not improve it could cause a huge dent in the production of vegetables leading to inflation in future,” Peerzada said.

He, however, said paddy and maize are still out of danger zone. “For paddy and maize there is still time to reap. We are optimistic that weather will remain dry and feasible for its harvesting,” Peerzada said.

Peerzada said the department has already constituted an advisory committee to guide the farmers to control further damage to the crops.

“We are providing guidelines to the farmers to use fertilizers suitable to weather conditions. However, if it will continue to rain then there is little we can do to save the crop,” he said.

The areas where crops were damaged include Lolab, Kreeri, Sopore, Rafiabad, Pulwama, Kulgam, Baramulla and other adjacent places.

“Even though the rainfall has not made much impact on horticulture so far, but if it continues to rain in the month of April than it can cause huge damage to flowers,” said Manzoor Ahmad, subject specialist of Horticulture.

Manzoor said delay in the spraying will increase the risk of diseases. “The inclement weather has already pushed the production of horticulture 25 days back. Last year, at this period of time, all the flowers were blooming but this year there are no such signs.”

Notably after government jobs, Horticulture is the major economy of kashmir valley and has turnover of over Rs 4000 crore annually.

Sixty per cent people are directly or indirectly associated with the sector to earn their livelihood.

Source - http://www.risingkashmir.com/