Srinagar, Nov 04: In the past three decades, many hectares of agricultural land has been turned into residential colonies, but the agriculture department has claimed that there is less impact on the rice produce in Srinagar district due to squeezing of agrarian land.
Talking to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Director Agriculture, Altaf Ahmad said that although the squeezing of agrarian land is impacting the produce, the produce has got doubled due to the new varieties introduced by them.
“The magnitude of the produce has gone up. But the land has been squeezed, which is a well-known fact,” he said, adding that there is an impact on the produce as if the land would have not been turned into residential colonies then people here would have been able to produce more crops.
He said the production of rice has gone up by 700 per cent compared to last few decades, which all is possible due to the new varieties introduced by the department, but the unfortunate part is the land available for the agricultural purpose is squeezing very rapidly.
“It is unfortunate that the people have been promoting the squeezing of agrarian land. We have not as a society looked into it. Our kids will curse us for promoting such kinds of activities. We are destroying our legacy. It is all a catastrophe,” he said, adding that the farmers can switch from one crop to another, but they should not be allowed to use this land for residential purposes.
He added that the department is conducting frequent awareness camps in this regard to make people aware about the consequences, but it is up to the revenue department to permit or not to permit anyone to use the land for residential purpose after proper evaluation—(KNO)
