Raihana Maqbool, GPJ Indian-administered Kashmir
Mohammad Razzak, 54, says growing rice is difficult because of bad weather conditions and the amount of labor associated with farming.
SRINAGAR, INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR – The road to Gulmarg, Kashmir’s popular ski resort and summer holiday destination, winds steeply uphill, twisting around high mountains. As recently as five years ago, the 38-kilometer (23.6-mile) stretch of road from Narbal Tehsil to Gulmarg was bordered by long expanses of rice fields, but it is now dotted with numerous shops, small malls and restaurants. What is left of the fields lies unplowed and fallow.
One of these shops belongs to Showkat Malik. He sells handmade, traditional Kashmiri shawls, suits, rugs and coats, which are popular with local and foreign tourists.
Malik, 39, left farming in 2011 because he couldn’t make a living in it anymore.
“We got little profit from the paddy, and the labor was more,” he says. “A lot of money went into maintaining the crops and paying the laborers.”
His father, hailing from generations of farmers, was initially against the idea, Malik says, believing that the business would fail and the farmland would be wasted. Six months of discussions and cajoling finally persuaded him, as head of the family, to approve Malik’s plan.
Malik is one of a large group of farmers who are leaving their rice fields, known as paddy fields in the region, to start commercial businesses. The shift, which experts say is the root of a major economic change in Kashmir, is seen all along the road to Gulmarg. There, in one of the most popular tourist areas in Kashmir, rice fields are being converted into retail businesses.
The new businesses have improved the income of local families, but experts warn that replacing rice farms with commercial businesses could exacerbate a shortage of locally-produced rice.
Rice-farming areas in Jammu and Kashmir dropped by 5,610 hectares (13,862 acres) between 2013-14 and 2014-15, bringing the total to 265,880 hectares (657,004 acres), according to the Economic Survey 2014-2015, an annual report produced by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Kashmir region was, in the 1940s, a stable, self-sufficient agrarian economy, says Javaid Iqbal Khan, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Kashmir. Now, it’s facing a food-production crisis.
Jammu and Kashmir’s food-grain production fell 435,000 metric tons short of the 2.5 million metric tons required to feed its population in 2013-14, according to the economic survey. The balance was brought in from other Indian states. The amount produced in 2014-15 declined even further to 1.7 million metric tons because of flooding in the region.
Farmers are frustrated by rice imported from other states in India that is cheaper to buy than their varieties. And changing weather patterns have made it impossible for farmers to rely on rain as they once did. (Read our story on climate change and Kashmir’s rice production.)
“The state is undergoing a tectonic shift,” Khan says. “People are looking for more profit.”
For Malik, the land bordering the busy road to Gulmarg was an ideal location for a shop. He built a store, about 250 square meters (2,700 square feet) with a parking area in front, in Dobiwan village about 26 kilometers (16 miles) from Srinagar, the summer capital of the Jammu and Kashmir state. Gulmarg is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Srinagar.
Malik earns around 60,000 rupees ($900) a month during the peak tourist seasons of June and July, when he hires seasonal help. Malik says he once earned about 50,000 rupees ($751) a year from rice farming. He spent about 17,000 rupees ($255) to hire laborers, buy pesticides and mill the rice, he says, so he was left with a very small income.
“I am happy with my decision,” Malik says. “The times are changing, and we cannot stick to the old traditions.”
Agriculture accounts for the direct or indirect livelihood of around 70 percent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir state, according to the Economic Survey 2014-15. The same report estimates that there will be a decline of 16.2 percent in the agriculture sector in 2014-15.
The Census of India 2011 showed that the number of cultivators in Jammu and Kashmir state dropped from 948,534 in 2001 to 566,469 in 2011.
Malls, restaurants and shops are being built on the roadside leading to Gulmarg, a popular tourist destination in the Kashmir region.
More construction is taking place in rice fields as people move away from traditional ways of making a living.
Khan attributes this shift in the economy to a change within the Kashmiri people.
“The mindset of the people has changed, and people find it more convenient to invest in a business rather than in growing rice,” he says.
Shamim Ahmad, 36, started a vegetarian restaurant in 2011 in Batpora, along the road between Narbal Tehsil and Gulmarg, about 28 kilometers (17.4 miles) from Srinagar. He converted a rice field, which his family had stopped farming as the work was labor-intensive and didn’t result in much profit.
Initially, he says, he was not sure he had made the right decision.
“The beginning was tough,” Ahmad says. “I was always interested in starting a business of my own, but when I thought of building in a place far from the capital city, I had my own fears, whether it will work there or not.”
Now, he says, he knows the decision was the right one. Ahmad says he earns 20,000 rupees ($300) to 25,000 rupees ($375) every month. He also employs two staff members.
Mohammad Razzak, 54, whose family has grown rice for generations, says he sees dramatic changes taking place in Tangmarg, the town where he lives and farms.
“Many people who have financial problems are selling their land to get money,” Razzak says. “Slowly the agricultural land is vanishing, and shops and other things have taken the place of the land.”
Razzak owns 1 acre where he grows rice, the only source of income for his family of five. And growing rice is becoming more and more difficult.
“In Kashmir, the weather conditions are changing,” he says. “We are experiencing more rainfalls. Many times, my crops have been damaged by such weather.”
Razzak says he hasn’t had a good rice harvest in the past three years. Heavy rain and sudden hailstorms have damaged the rice stalks, so his crops have been poor.
Razzak says he once expected to earn about 30,000 rupees ($450) from a good rice harvest, the last of which was about five years ago. Now, he earns about 15,000 rupees ($225) to 20,000 rupees ($300) from a good crop but much less from the poor crops he’s been harvesting. Sometimes the rice he grows is sufficient only for his family’s food, he says, and he does not have a surplus to sell. To earn extra money, he works as a laborer in other people’s fields, taking home 200 rupees ($3) to 250 rupees ($3.75) a day.
“People who had money built shops on their land and are earning a good profit,” Razzak says. “I don’t have resources to start any such business and continue to have losses every year.”
Razzak says his children want him to sell the land and earn some money. But he does not want to.
“This is the land of my forefathers, and I am emotionally attached to it,” he says. “How can I sell it?”
Malik, meanwhile, has no regrets about converting his rice farm into a tourist shop. He is developing plans to improve his business.
“I am saving some amount from the profit and in the future will hopefully expand my business,” he says. “I am also thinking of adding dry fruits to my shop.”
Khan believes this changing economy bodes well for Kashmir’s future.
“This trend will take the economy of Kashmir to a high level,” he says.
Raihana Maqbool, GPJ, translated two interviews from Urdu and one interview from Kashmiri.
