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| J&K on brink of food shortage | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | May 6
ET Exclusive
Past few weeks have seen a global debate on the availability of food and the issue attracted more attention after US President George Bush blamed India for scarcity –however, little is known about the position in Jammu and Kashmir which in now way is sufficient in food production.
Despite being a state of agrarian economy, Jammu and Kashmir has never been able to obtain the complete self sufficiency in food production. There has been an increased focus on the agriculture research and modernization of practices but it seems that the technology has not been fully delivered to farms where food grains are actually produced.
According to official statistics, Jammu and Kashmir still needs to import around 40 per cent of its total food grain productions. In many sectors, the production has been actually declining over the years.
According to a blue print prepared by the government in 2004, it was worked out that Jammu and Kashmir will be completely self sufficient in food production by the middle of 2007. However, this deadline has passed but the target could not be achieved. Now government is making fresh claims that the state will be food grain surplus by 2010.
While the government is making claims of giving a push to the agriculture activity, the researchers are worried over the future prospects. Latest studies say that the state is on the brink of an environmental disaster due to global warming. Temperatures are rising alarmingly, glaciers are vanishing, and rainfall and snowfall patterns are changing, taking a toll on the agricultural produce in Jammu and Kashmir.
It may be mentioned here that a recent report of ActionAid International pointed out depleting glaciers and water resources and the severe crisis faced by the saffron growing belt, which depends on rain, as alarming.
Predicting a severe shortage in food output, the report reveals that the transformation of once rich paddy growing fields in the Kashmir Valley into arid stretches has led to a 40 percent fall in food production. This could rise to 60 percent in the coming decade.
In 1980-81, the food deficit in the valley was only 23 percent for a population of 3.3 million. Since then, the population has almost doubled to six million - and so has the food deficit.
Vegetable production in the valley too has suffered - recording a shortfall of more than 30 percent - while the oilseed crop has seen a downslide of 70 percent, says the report.
The valley has also been witnessing a boom in real estate construction in recent years, with agricultural land being blatantly converted into residential plots, despite a law prohibiting it.
The report quotes the Indian Meteorological Department as saying that temperatures have increased in Jammu and Kashmir. In the last two decades, the temperature in the Kashmir Valley has risen by 1.45 degrees Celsius while in Jammu it has gone up by 2.32 degrees.
"The surge in temperatures is leading to scanty snowfall in the plains in Kashmir and very little snowfall in the mountains. Accordingly, the water level in rivers and streams in Kashmir is decreasing," the report says.
It adds that there has been an overall 21 percent fall in the glacier surface area in the Chenab basin, declining from one square kilometre in 1962 to 0.32 sq km in 2004.
Small glaciers in many areas have vanished in eastern Srinagar and the Pirpanjal mountain range in Kashmir, according to the report. It warns that in the coming times, floods and droughts would become common in the Kashmir valley, diseases would be rampant and crop yield would decrease with each passing year. |
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