From setbacks to success: Asiya Akbar’s rise as a progressive farmer

Bandipora, Sep 01: Asiya Akbar, 32, has faced life’s setbacks head-on to emerge as a progressive and innovative entrepreneur and farmer, supporting her family of seven.

At 32, Asiya, from the small village of Nusoo in north Kashmir's Bandipora district, has been in the business of selling organic mushrooms, spices, and vegetables, mostly plants and plant seedlings to a wide customer base, particularly in north Kashmir’s districts. Her popularity is now fetching her customers from Srinagar and Ganderbal as well.

She has been doing all this from the rooftop of her father's house as they have no land, demonstrating how a business can be successful even in simpler settings.

Currently, Asiya mostly sells a variety of vegetable seedlings, ranging from simple species of collard greens to shallots, and spring onions to brinjals and beetroot. What makes her unique is that she provides fresh availability year-round, even in winter.

"I sell my produce to customers in Kupwara, Baramulla, Hajin, Ganderbal, and even Srinagar," Asiya told Greater Kashmir.

This success did not come easily. Asiya started cultivating organic mushrooms with support from the agricultural department in 2021 and expanded into vegetable farming a year later.

Married in 2011 in a nearby village of Mantrigam, Asiya lost her first husband, army personnel, within four years, leaving her "devastated" along with her two children. However, her in-laws never gave up on her.

"My father and my in-laws have been a force behind my success and continue to support me despite the odds," Asiya says.

Asiya, who stayed in her first husband’s home, "went through a lot of ridicule," she expressed.

"The society looked down on me as a young widow, which compelled me to remarry," she shared.

After coming to terms with the loss of her first husband, she remarried in 2017.

But in 2019, another tragedy struck when their house was reduced to ashes, leaving her "heartbroken."

However, support from her father and father-in-law proved pivotal. She moved back to her father’s house in her native village and began a new journey toward self-reliance.

"I wasn’t doing much at the time." But during a programme for the wives of ex-army personnel killed in the line of duty years ago, "we were informed about starting a business," she said.

Asiya was filled with curiosity and soon contacted the district’s agricultural department.

With the help and guidance, she started her first unit of organic mushroom farming in 2021. By then, Asiya had given birth to two more children.

She used plastic crates for mushroom cultivation, earning a modest income. A year later, she was advised to use the compost from mushrooms to grow vegetables.

Considering the "soaring" vegetable prices, she bought dozens of plastic crates and began growing almost all the vegetables on her rooftop.

Initially, she thought it would ease some of the burden of purchasing vegetables at soaring prices for her family, but her dedication ended up benefiting her family even more.

"The rooftop of my father’s house remains the only place I have for my business," she says.

Asiya, who has been in the business for three years now, says, "Although it doesn’t earn me huge money, whatever there is, it is enough to take care of my family," which includes two girls and two boys.

Her three older children are in classes six, five, and kindergarten, while her youngest toddler has recently turned three years old.

Dedicated to her profession as a progressive farmer, Asiya is also striving to become a successful entrepreneur. She is working to brand her three special varieties of spices: one is a famed and age-old spice of Kashmir called "ver," and another variety she has yet to name.

Her products also include organic food colouring from cockscomb, used in Kashmir’s Wazwaan, locally known as Mawal, which she also grows organically in her rooftop kitchen garden.

"I have a dream to achieve something big in life," Asiya says, who also markets organic mushrooms by purchasing produce from other farmers in the district.

She adds, "Nothing comes easy, but with determination and hard work, anything can be achieved. You don’t always have to start from something big; you can start from as low as I did."

Asiya’s curiosity drives her to try other species in her small space. More recently, she has been involved in saffron trials and hopes this will also be a success.