With Agriculture rests the hope

Over the years, J&K is witnessing a dwindling agriculture production that needs introspection and scrutiny from all the stakeholders of the agriculture sector. Furthermore, unprecedented population growth has put a lot of pressure on life style and living conditions, and if appropriate measures are not taken the UT would have to go through the most difficult times in its contemporary history. On one hand the agriculture lands are diminishing as designated lands are used for residential and commercial purposes. On the other hand industry in Kashmir is fast declining, as the industrial growth and development itself had been very poorly managed in last 50 years. J&K still has agriculture and allied sectors as the spine of its economy. Due to global economic slowdown caused by the pandemic our UT is headed toward a great depression and unless time-bound corrections are made there is no escape. While the effects of growing population are discernible in cities, they go unnoticed in other districts. In Srinagar district for example real estate price has skyrocketed as the habitable space has considerably shrunk. It would be impossible in coming years for even families and households with moderate financial strength to make a new purchase or sustain a decent livelihood. Since family strength is not going to stop, the push can already be felt with the coming of new satellite towns and colonies in peripheries of the city. For equilibrium there has to be internal migration which is not happening in a major way. As a result housing problem in JK cities is going to be more acute in the time to come. After shelter, the livelihood in the form of food security is also bearing the pressure. In city, majority of the people do not depend on land or agriculture per se. It’s non-agrarian despite the fact that many are associated in trade and commerce of agriculture products. With dearth of jobs in the entire UT, people in cities have no subsidiary occupation to fall back to. While the industries have failed to relieve the economy, grow and keep pace, the best bet remains to be agriculture. Banking and financial institutions that could have helped strengthen industrial base or services sector face too many obstacles due to the lack of basic infrastructure. However, given the land area of the UT, even if some portion cannot be utilized for agriculture, there is still hope left. In order to stabilize the economy in future, government and the political leaders should provide undivided attention to promote agriculture produce and set achievable targets for the coming years.