Pulwama farmer introduces ‘Yellow Mustard’ in Kashmir

Pulwama, Oct 14: Progressive farmer from Patal Bagh village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district, Irshad Ahmad Dar has adopted one more innovation this sowing season for Rabbi crops.
Irshad is the first farmer from Kashmir to have sown a special variety of yellow mustard (Brassica Campestris) in his land.
The variety is developed by (Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR’s) Directorate of Rapeseed- Mustard Research, Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
Talking to Rising Kashmir, Irshad Ahmad Dar, said that he noticed this variety in March of this year at ICAR New Delhi.
“After a keen observation it looked very promising to me and I decided to give it a try on trial basis,” he said, adding that oil obtained from this yellow rapeseed variety has many health benefits.
Dr. P.K. Rai, Director, ICAR-Directorate of Rapeseed -Mustard Research, Bharatpur, Rajasthan said that in Kashmir usually brown mustard is grown.
“I think it is for the first time that Irshad is going to have a yellow rapeseed crop,” he said, adding that the variety of the yellow mustard, NRCYS 05-02, has been developed at their research institute.
“It has a lot of medicinal value and these medicinal properties have been mentioned in ancient literature including The Vedas,” he said.
He informed that the particular variety yields around 50 quintals of produce per hectare.
He revealed that before Brassica Juncea, yellow mustard was widely cultivated in UP, West Bengal, Bihar and other mustard oil consuming parts of the country .
“The yellow mustard is now confined to some parts of eastern UP, West Bengal and Assam,” he said, adding that people in West Bengal use yellow mustard oil in making various dishes of fish.
He said that Irshad is an innovative farmer and “when he asked for the seed I dispatched it to him.”
“ Let us see how this performs in Valley, if it performs well that will be good thing for the farming community, “
He informed me that the yellow mustard oil has more value in the market than the Indian Mustard oil ( Brassica Juncea).
Irshad is an innovative farmer who has already undertaken some novel farming concepts like true potato seed technology, off season cultivation of peas and early adoption of SR4 variety of paddy.
For his innovations and contributions, he has been awarded by various government and non-government organisations from time to time.