‘Harvest mushk-budji twice a year’: Scientists conduct successful experiment

SRINAGAR: To grow “Mushk Budji” twice a year in a soil-less environment, two Agriculture Scientists of the Agriculture Department Kulgam have successfully conducted an experiment of Kashmir’s aromatic rice by using vertical farming, requiring less space compared to traditional farming.

As per the news agency CNS, the experiment through vertical farming to sow Mushk Budji, which is anticipated to be cultivated twice a year with the new method of farming, was conducted by Dr Zahoor and Dr Kousar Makeen under the direction of the Director Agriculture Kashmir Chowdhury Mohammad Iqbal.

“In vertical farming, plants grow in upright towers and the Mushk Budji too has been experimented to develop in the same way, which requires comparatively less space than traditional farming. With this farming technique, we are expecting the crop to grow twice in one year as we have done early sowing of the Mushk Budji,” Dr. Kousar and Dr Zahoor said.

They said that vertical farming is a soil-less culture, eliminating the need for soil. “It is done in a controlled environment using techniques such as aquaponics, hydroponics and aeroponics, that do not make use of soil,” they added.

To conduct the experiment, the duo agriculture scientists said that moderate cost was incurred and could be easily afforded by a common farmer.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that farmers and Agriculture graduate students would be given classes very soon pertaining to vertical farming. (CNS)