Srinagar, Dec 18: Department of Agriculture is introducing the concept of exotic vegetables in the Haal village of South Kashmir's Pulwama district. 

 

This is being done through the distribution of the seedling of these vegetables to the farmers. 

 

"Since the farmers here have less paddy land so we thought to introduce exotic as well as local varieties of vegetable here. This is the smart way of increasing the production as well as benefits," said Younis Ali Sofi, Agriculture Extension Assistant. 

 

The seedlings are being produced in the high tech poly green house which has been built in the office premise of Agriculture Department at Pulwama. This poly green house has been built in the month of April this year at an estimated cost of Rs 15 to 20 lakh. 

 

Some of the vegetables which have been introduced here includes brocolli, parsley, raddish, red cabbage etc. 

 

"Before introducing these vegetables we had to motivate the people to utilise their land for greater benefits which comes by selling these vegetables in the local as well as in the national market," Sofi said. 

 

Sofi said that before distributing seedlings to the farmers, they also did soil testing of their lands to check whether land is viable for production. 

 

"We did a soil analysis to check whether the land is fit for these vegetables or not. We also introduced seedlings of hybrid and local varieties as well," he said. 

 

During the month of November the department distributed the seedlings of onion and now next batch would be distributed in the month of March. 

 

"We would also like to extend this concept to urban areas so that people get fresh and exotic vegetables from their own kitchen gardens," he said.