Agriculture is meant to grow and produce food for the human beings and for the animals too living in our habitats. All this food is ultimately used by the human beings directly or indirectly as humans being on the top of food chain. With the increase in population the need of food production also increase to meet the demands of growing population. It needs more land to be cultivated besides the use of seeds that can be sufficient to grow more yields to serve the increased population. On one side the scientific methods are utilised for increasing more yield in less time but on the other hand it needs to be protected from infection and harmful pests which greatly effect the crop production. Food is the basic need for survival of the entire living world and it depends upon the quantity and quality of food for healthy survival of the race. In today’s world, tremendous efforts are being putforth by the scientists to produce new and high yielding crop varieties that can be resistant to the challenges like diseases, draughts, unfavourable climatic conditions etc and that can take lesser time to yield crops. Mechanisation has revolutionalised this industry especially in the developed countries. Mechanization has made the system easy from land management to the crop harvesting and preservation by utilising low man power. The foods produced are also preserved to last for a longer duration. Food preservation is a bigger challenge where maximum of the food and food products get spoiled if not preserved properly especially in underdeveloped countries which are either poor in food preservation technology or devode of it. In this way a large percentage of food produce gets wasted & spoiled. Another bigger challenge is the lack of transportation by which the foods produced in bulk in certain areas do not reach the areas which mostly need it. Due to this imbalance certain areas face the problem of mantainance and storage and in some areas people die due to scarcity of food. The producers suffer loss due to having no or low rates for their produce, get heavily indebted in the hands of middle men, company holders or the rich and ultimately suffer and at times get compelled to suicides while the consumers die due to its scarcity or non availability , get indebted in the hands of dealers or company holders who sell the products beyond the affordable cost to the people utimately face the brunt. Yet the people follow the traditional methods of crop cultivation which involve more efforts with very low yield because of having no improved seeds or the lack of know how of the latest trends and methods of crop growing in general. The use of machines in farming is negligible either due to financial impact or due to low approach to the machanization gadgets or mechanizstion enviroment. Maximum of the land is being transformed to alternate purposes. When the farming get low yields is being transformed to alternate crops without knowing the suitability of the land resulting in an unsuccessful crop shifts. This shift although gives good results for some time may be at risk in future if not planned as per the scientific expertice. Most of the land has been converted into construction sites due to population expansion and urbanization which poses a threat in terms of food scarcity in future. Most of the land is yet being left unused due to certain reasons either lacking irrigation facility, lack of roads, poor soil quality or lack of knowledge as how to use a definite land for a suitable crop. Our farming generally fails due the reason of involving more labour and giving low yields. Soil testing is one of the important tools to utilise the soil as per its suitability to a definite kind of crop. This facility is not available at the easy excess to the farmers. More of the things have been done to improve the food production but more is yet to be done. There is a best scope for improving our horticulture sector as one of the important sectors of agriculture.
Dry fruits like almonds, walnuts are grown in Kashmir as a best cash crop. Almonds are grown in the kareva land and other sandy, hard and high lands that need not more of irrigation. This industry is at the extinction now because of some environmental issues, lack of irrigation facilities and low attention for disease control. However in certain areas its production is yet going on but needs a proper maintenance on scientific lines. Walnuts are another cash crop in Kashmir which highly competes the international market. In fact Kashmir can be a best resource of agriculture and agricultural products but needs a priority and best mechanism to be carried on for best results. Saffron is one of the precious cash crops (Spice) of Kashmir famous throughout the world. It also got a tremendous decrease in production due to various reasons. It was taken under technology mission program under a pilot project costing about three hundred crores but the results are not satisfactory on the grass root level. Day by day the agricultural land gets squeezed and transformed into commercial places, markets and residential areas. Agriculture is the backbone of life but the difficulties, mismanagement and lack of facilities make the industry ailing. People after getting disinterested do not want to invest more in agricultural sector which is an alarm for future generations to get under scarcity of food and will make the people dependent on imports only. Kitchen gardening concept is not getting a boost which has a high potential to save the daily economy of every household on least input and heavy health benefits. It is a hightime to save this ailing agriculture industry to save the life of future generations.
( Author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
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