Srinagar, July 18: Mushkbudji Farmers Producers Organisation Limited became the first company in the Union territory to receive the import export licence, marking a crucial turning point in Kashmir’s fragrant rice revolution.
In accordance with NABARD’s PODF programme, the FPO is being pushed in Kokernag’s Sagam village in Anantnag.
Incorporated as Farmers Producers Company in July 2019, the FPO planned to sell the perfumed type of rice and assist in its promotion and sale throughout the nation.
The Mushk Budji farmers will now have access to international markets, and this will fetch them a very high price, according to an official of NABARD. “With FPO now having its own import and export licence, the Mushk Budji farmers will now have access to global markets and this will fetch them a very good price,” he said.
In the Sagam region in South Kashmir, an ancient type of rice called mushkbudji is currently experiencing a rebirth. In the 1960s, it was grown in Kashmir’s upper reaches, but the development of the rice blast disease made it undesirable. Natives of Sagam also farmed Kamadh, another fragrant variety, but because of its poor yield, they shifted to red rice and other varieties. In order to increase their revenues, farmers were also compelled to consider alternatives, such as horticulture.
Muhammad Ayoub of Sagam, which is around 70 miles from Srinagar, has vivid memories of the onset of the blast sickness in the 1960s. “For harvesting and land preparation, my family had to rely on labourers from outside of Jammu and Kashmir. Despite rising staffing costs, the sickness reduced production. Additionally, there were little market prospects available. And the demand decreased as the region began to rely on rice and grains from other states, says Ayoub.
In 2010, Ayoub made the decision to turn a piece of land he inherited into an orchard. He raised the money to convert 10 kanals by selling three kanals. On five of the remaining seven kanals, he planted traditional paddy (Buji Cheeni and K448 types) for his own consumption and left the other two fallow.
Now with the good prospects of fragment rice, he has again converted the orchard into a paddy field for the cultivation of Mushkbudji.
Encouraged by the favourable response, the agricultural department and SKUAST have expanded the scheme to Kokernag, Soaf Shalli, and Paniz Gam, all in the Anantnag district, as well as several villages in Bhaderwah of the Doda district, Budgam, and Baramulla districts since they have the right environment. Currently, farming is being extended to the districts of Kulgam and Kupwara. A crop of Mushkbudji on 244 hectares produced 6,000 quintals of the grain in 2020. Despite the 248 hectares of additional cultivation in 2021, just 5,400 quintals were produced. In the previous year, 280 hectares of the crop produced 6,090 quintals, of which 6,000 quintals were produced by the Anantnag district alone. The long-term goal is to cultivate 999 hectares of this land.
