Srinagar, Dec 31: Mohammad Altaf Khan, a resident of Uroosa village in Uri is an orange farmer who is reviving his grandfather’s orange farming method.
Orange farming was started by his grandfather late Mohammad Ashraf in 1975 who was then an award-winning farmer and had then motivated other people of the border villages to go for the orange farming.
“With the intervention of our grandfather more people started growing it on their lawns. The local farmers decided to grow orange plants,” the farmer said.
The farmers in his village take his suggestions whenever they are in need and he feels happy to assist them through the experience he gathered all these years.
He has planted orange trees on field beds and annually produces more than 40 boxes which he distributes to relatives and neighbours. The village is becoming as the orange village and people in adjoining areas also grow oranges but that is limited.
Khan said the fruit ripens in October end and are harvested until late December. “Many villages have the potential to grow oranges but now people are not taking interest in it otherwise it could be game changer and employed youth can get jobs as well,” Khan said.
Khan said each year the Horticulture Department distributes orange plants to villages in people in order to encourage people to go for orange farming.
“This year the horticulture department distributed the orange plants free of cost. But people are not taking it as a farming method,” he said.
“Many people have planted orange trees. We hope that in future the village produces malta variety oranges in huge quantity as SKUAST-K and the horticulture department are providing a helping hand to the farmers,” Khan said.
He said the government should also take measures to encourage people to go for orange farming as many villages in Uri have rich potential to grow the crop at a larger scale.
“Government can start an awareness campaign and propagate orange farming. They can also identify specific land where they can train farmers,” he said.
The farmer also said that villages like Uroosa, Chakra, Darskoot, Kamalkote, have a huge potential to grow orange fruits.
