Srinagar: The Central government is trying to revive the vermicompost culture to produce organic vegetables in Kashmir, in a bid to educate farmers and produce quality and cost-effective yield.
“With the help of these low-cost vermicompost units, farmers can adopt this system in agricultural lands and produce good quantities of organic vegetables, which is the need of the hour. We all know that any fertiliser or pesticides are harmful to our health,” said Dr Rizwan, Assistant Professor of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Scientists and Technology (SKUAST).
Dr Rizan said that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) is also recommending farmers to focus on the cultivation of organic vegetables.
He said scientists at the university are working hard to spread awareness among farmers about the importance and benefits of vermicompost culture.
Nissar Ahmad, a local farmer lauded the university staff for training them on ways to produce vegetables using vermicompost.
“Using vermicompost better quality vegetables are produced. All the staff members here are helping us. They also give us technical knowledge. It is well known that vegetable produced from vermicompost is of far superior quality, and also good for our health,” said Nissar Ahmad, a local farmer.
Mohamad Farooq, the field in charge, said that he along with other SKUAST staff members educate farmers on the benefit of organic farming.
“We train these farmers for two or three weeks. We teach them about the benefits of organic vegetables and its health benefits and also about the vermicompost culture that we are trying to create,” said Farooq.