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| This Budgam village produces Rs 15-20 cr vegetables annually | | |  early times report
Budgam, Feb 5: Bugaam Batpora, a small hamlet in this central Kashmir district has emerged as one of the largest vegetable producing village in Kashmir valley by producing high quality vegetables worth crores annually.
The village is known as "Chotaa Punjab" in Budgam as it supplies vegetables not only to other districts of J&K but also exports a good quantity to several north Indian states including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the villagers, people in the village shifted to vegetable farming around two decades back. "With sustained efforts the production over the years has increased considerably, as a result of which the per capita income of the people associated with vegetable farming has shown sharp improvement," said a local.
Around 800 hectares of land in the village is under cultivation of vegetables including cauliflower, reddish, turnip, onion, potato, carrot, knolkhol and tomato.
A local vegetable producer Abdul Kabeer told Early Times that the vegetables of Bugaam village are tasty and the people in civil lines of Srinagar prefer these vegetables". The Bugaam land is dry and that is the reason the vegetables of this area are tastier," he said.
Kabeer added that after the Marvel Lift Irrigation project was commissioned in late 80s "people shifted to vegetable cultivation in a big way."
"Today an average family earns minimum one lakh per annum from the vegetable farming," he added.
Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, a young vegetable grower said: "At an average 40 to 50 trucks are loaded daily with different kinds of vegetables in our village especially during the summer months which is considered the peak season. This process continues for nearly five months from March every year."
He said the vegetable cultivation in the village and adjoining areas has helped in employment generation. "We feel short of labourers during the summers. So we engage Bihari labourers."
According to locals the village does Rs 15 crore to Rs 20 crore business annually by supplying vegetables to various parts of J&K and also to other states in India.
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