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| Improved irrigation practices can make up for land loss | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu,September 11 :-The Department of agriculture has decided to initiate measures for restricting gradual decrease in the cultivable area in Jammu and Kashmir.Official reports said that during the last 30 years the cultivable area in the st ate had declined by over 25 per cent because of mushroom growth of housing colonies,stress on horticulture and on account of industrial estates. During the last 25 years the cultuvable area in Kashmir has declined from 11 per cent to seven per cent of the total area.
The Minister for Agriculture,G.H.Mir,today said that the Government may not be able to "reclaim" cultivable land that was lost to the housing projects and to the orchards but efforts would be made to r estrict further decline in the cultivable area.Asked what steps he proposed to take Mir said that first of all the Government will lay emphasis on extending irrigation facilities to those areas where cropping practices depend on rain.
He said he has decided to submit specific plans to the Department of irrigation so that it initiated measures for building lift irrigations projects which would cover kandi belts.He said that enhancement of lift irrigation schemes was needed more in the Jammu region than in Kashmir because
the valley had 60 per cent irrigated area against less than 30 per cent in Jammu.
Experts have stated that the tremperature conditions in the Jammu region were favourable for crop cultivation round the year but nonavailability of water had rendered cropping practices difficult in kandi belts and in farflung areas.Mir stated that out of over five lakh hectares of cultivable land not more than 1.50 lakh hectares were irrigated areas and hence expansion of irrigation facilities was necessary.
In reply to another question Mir said that in the near future cultivable land may face further decline if the development of housing colonies on agricultural land was not banned.He said that one way was to motivate people to change their opinion on building residential houses.In this connection he referred to the practice of building multi-storey buildings where families live in flats and said that once Kashmir too adopted multi-storey culture the stress on agricultural land would be reduced.
The Minister felt the need for desilting the existing canals that supply water to the cultivable area.He also suggested to the experts inthe Irrigation department to work in coordination with the experts in the Department of Agriculture so that various result-oriented lift irrigation schemes were completed.Mir said that he had also suggested to the scientists of two agricultural universities to evolve not only yielding varieties of wheat and rice but those varities which have short maturity period.He said this was anot her way for ensuring increased yield because the vagaries of weather inthe state,especially in the Kashmir valley,warrant cultivation of those varities of crops that are ready for harvesting within the shortest possible time.He said let the vicechancellors of the two agricultural universities send scientists to Punjab and Haryana Agricultural universities for exchange of ideas and for seeking assistance from scientists there for evolving high yielding varieties of wheat and rice.
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