Umaisar Gull Ganie
Kulgam, Dec 28: Achieving a milestone in flourishing the nursery business, a Kulgam man quit his government job to become a successful entrepreneur in nursery business. Today, Mushtaq Ahmed Bhat annually produces over two lakh fruit plants and creates jobs for scores of youth.
Bhat, a resident of Qaimoh belt in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district cultivates almost 150 diverse fruit plant varieties in his nurseries and strategically markets to customers across Kashmir.
Talking to news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), he said, this nursery spans over 70 kanals with around 50 people working there every day who earn their livelihood. “We have many plant nurseries in the area which produce around two lakh plants every season, including root stock, budding – the grafted plants,” he said.
He said he has been into the nursery business for the past 35 years. “The plant nursery business is having good margins in the Kashmir valley especially in the horticulture sector,” Bhat said. “We plan to utilize more land and expand it to 300 kanals. We appeal to the government to provide us with any advice on better projects or schemes, in which we can offer more employment to others and produce the best possible fruit-bearing plants.”
Bhat said he earns a decent livelihood. “We have almost 150 varieties of plants in our nurseries as every year we are getting good quality trees,” he said.
He added that he was a government employee for six years and left the government job to pursue his passion and love for plants, which he believes positively impacts the environment and society.
Encouraging the youth, Bhat in his message to youth urged them not to remain idle at home but to initiate any business assuring that it would pave the way for a well-earned livelihood.
“Don’t sit idle at home; instead, start any business and you will be able to earn your livelihood very well.”—(KNO)
