: Quit Maize Farming to Grow Marigold, 520 Farmer Families’ Income Increase Five Times #IndiaNEWS #Farming Around 520 families of picturesque Kellarh Valley in Jammu and Kashmir’s hilly Bhaderwah

Quit Maize Farming to Grow Marigold, 520 Farmer Families’ Income Increase Five Times #IndiaNEWS #Farming
Around 520 families of picturesque Kellarh Valley in Jammu and Kashmir’s hilly Bhaderwah town have gradually quit maize farming in a span of 12 years and turned to profitable marigold cultivation. According to the villagers, their new cash crop is giving them an income five times more than what they used to get from the traditional maize crop.
“Maize crop grown over one Kanal of land would give us an income of around Rs 5,000-6,000 whereas our farmers are now earning Rs 25,000 to 30,000 from the sale of 6-8 quintals of flowers grown over the same land area,�? says Mohammad Iqbal, one of the progressive farmers of the Kellarh Valley in Doda District.
Pic Credit: Alok Pathania
Iqbal, who grows marigold crop along with apples, garlic and other cash crops over an area of around 10 Kanals, and earns in lakhs, was recently awarded by Rameswar Teli, the Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Petroleum and Natural Gas, when the latter was in the town to attend a “public outreach programme�?.
The marigold crop was brought to the scenic Kellarh Village of Bhaderwah town in the year 2009 by then created Bhaderwah Development Authority (BDA).
Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) officer, Talat Parvez Rohella, Commissioner Secretary, Hospitality and Protocol Department, Jammu and Kashmir Government, who’s credited for introducing the flower crop in the region when he was posted as CEO Bhaderwah Development Authority (BDA), says, “Way back in 2009, we distributed Nasturtium flower seeds to the farmers of Kellarh under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). �?
The government programme RKVY has now been renamed to ‘Remunerative Approach for Agriculture and Allied Sector Rejuvenation’.
As Nasturtium was exported to Holland then, the senior bureaucrat says, farmers of Bhaderwah region immensely benefited from the cultivation of the new cash crop.
“After the success of the Nasturtium, we involved the Panchayat members of Kellarh and sensitised through them the village farmers about the possibility of growing ‘profitable’ marigold crop over traditional maize crop under the RKVY scheme,�? Rohella tells TheBetterIndia.
Rohella claimed the RKVY scheme provides for a subsidy of Rs 13,000 per four kanals of land “and this was a great deal for the Kellarh farmers who won’t get any subsidy for growing traditional crops until then�?.
Pic Credit: Alok Pathania
“However, the year we started, we were able to convince only 10-20 farmers. But I’m glad that almost all the farmers have now been growing marigold and are earning a better income,�? the J&K government’s Commissioner Secretary ranked officer, Talat Parvez Rohella says.

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