Budgam’s Kanidajan harvests bumper potato crop

Kanidajan: The farmers in Kanidajan area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district have started harvesting a bumper crop of potatoes.
The farmers here in this hilly village falling under Char-e -Sharief tehsil told Rising Kashmir that they have been harvesting potatoes for the past three days.
Ishfaq Ahmad Wagay, 31, is one such farmer who is digging out potatoes from his 12 kanals of land .
He is helped by his other 3 family members including two females, all ploughing with hoes.
“ We have sowed 10 quintals of seed and are expecting to collect more than 40 quintals of produce from the crop,” Ishfaq said, adding that last year the produce was 25 quintals.
He said that the market for potatoes is also good.
“We expect a rate of between 4000 to 5000 per quintal,” he said, adding that after deducting all expenses of manure, fertilizer and labour he will reap a decent profit.
Kanidajan and Hirpora village of Shopian are two important areas known for producing quality potatoes.
Ishfaq said that the peculiarity of Kanidajan potato is that it is comparatively resistant to rotting.
“The potato can be stored up to April of next year under normal environmental conditions without any rotting,” he said, adding that it is comparatively tastier and bigger in size.
Mohammed Ahsan, another aged farmer from Kanidajan, said that the potatoes sell like hot cakes.
“The potato produced here is used as seed by farmers from plains,” he said, adding that they need not to ferry the produce to the marketplace for selling.
The farmers from plains come here and buy directly from producers, he said.
Ahsan has 6 kanals of land under potato cultivation and hopes to collect around 35 quintals of produce.
“The produce depends on hard work and fertility of land,” he said.
The old man thanked God for bestowing him with a good crop this year.
In Kanidajan around 1500 kanals of land are cultivated with potatoes.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Budgam, Syed Tafazul said that this year there was good distribution of rain. “There was sufficient moisture content in the soil, a fairly good potato crop was registered,” he said, adding that approximate yield will be up to 10 quintal per Kanal.