Yellow revolution: Mustard farming becomes popular in Kashmir Valley

Kashmir has quietly undergone a yellow revolution as thousands of hectares of land have been brought under mustard cultivation to double the farmers' income.

Earlier, most of the land in Kashmir was used only for growing a single crop -- paddy in most areas -- but now farmers are rotating crops in Kharif and Rabi seasons just like in other parts of the country.

"Climatic conditions of J&K UT are diverse. Under the Prime Minister's goal of doubling the farmers' income, we undertook an exercise to increase the area under the cultivation of mustard in the Rabi season," Director, Agriculture Kashmir, Chaudhary Mohammad Iqbal told PTI.

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From just 30,000 hectares in 2020-21, the agriculture department has been able to increase the area under mustard cultivation in the valley by nearly five times.

"In 2020-2021, the area under mustard cultivation was just 30,000 hectares. In 2021-2022, we set and achieved a target of bringing 1.01 lakh hectares of land under mustard cultivation...during the current year 2022-2023, we have brought 1.40 lakh hectares of land under mustard cultivation," the official said.

Chaudhary said the success of mustard farming can be gauged from the fact that the land under cultivation of oilseed crop was more than the area under rice cultivation.

"We have 1.25 lakh hectares of land under rice cultivation and mustard has already exceeded that. Except for waterlogged lands, we are trying to bring as much land under mustard cultivation as possible," he said.

He said oil being a staple in the diet of Kashmir, the Valley was earlier dependent on imports to fulfil the demand.

"Now there is a yellow revolution in Kashmir everywhere. Next year, we are aiming to cover all those areas which could not be covered this year," Chaudhary added.

Mohammad Sultan, one of the farmers who joined the yellow revolution, did not expect such surprising results from mustard cultivation.

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"Before mustard farming, my land was used for grazing purposes of animals which didn't benefit us at all. For the last two to three years, with the help of the agriculture department, we started mustard farming. We never thought the results would be so amazing," Sultan said.

With fields full of mustard crops, the landscape in many areas of the valley has just turned yellow.

"At present, fields are filled with mustard flowers. We are happy. The first benefit for farmers is they are getting oil for themselves from their own fields rather than buying from the market which is so expensive. Earlier 30 to 40 kg of oil was harvested from one kanal of land but at present, with the guidance of the department we are getting 50 to 60 kg in one kanal," he added.

The 70-year-old farmer has been farming for the past 50 years but he has seen such a bumper crop for the first time.

Echoing the same, another farmer in the UT, Wali Muhammad, is happy to have switched to mustard farming instead of growing grass for animal grazing. "After 12 years, I again sow mustard seeds, which is giving 100 times more returns than grass," he said.