SKAUST Wadura campus records bumper strawberry crop

Sopore, June 7: The SKUAST-K Wadura campus witnessed a bumper strawberry crop this year, much to the joy of the students who worked hard to acquire the best yield.

To get first-hand experience in agricultural operations, the BSC Agriculture 7th and 8th-semester students planted strawberry plants on three kanals of land as part of the “learning through experience” method.

The process started with tilling of land in October last year, following which the plantation was carried out by the students.

The students have harvested 2400 boxes of 200 grams till now and are expecting 800 more. Initially, these strawberry boxes were sold at the rate of Rs 40 and then at Rs 30. Due to torrential rains and hailstorms, the crop of over 600 boxes was damaged due to its highly perishable nature.

Speaking to Greater Kashmir, Dean Academics, Faculty of Agriculture SKAUST WadooraDrRehanaHabib said that strawberry cultivation can be a great prospect for the unemployed youth for earning their livelihood.

“There is not much hard work needed for the cultivation of strawberries. A person interested in the cultivation has to plant the baby plants in October and in the middle of May next year, he can harvest the crop, however, harvesting may give a tough time to the farmers because the crop quickly ripes in bulk,” DrRehana said.

“Buying and spraying pesticides has been a great concern for farmers but strawberries hardly need any kind of pesticide spraying so farmers can easily take up strawberry farming for their economic gains,” she added.

On being asked that due to the perennial and highly perishable nature of strawberries, people don’t go for its cultivation on a large scale, she said that after crop harvesting, farmers can extract baby plants from the mother plants and sell them in the market.

 “Even people use strawberry plants for decoration purposes by planting them in the hanging baskets, so after the yield is harvested, a farmer can earn a good amount by selling the baby plants,” she said.

While commenting on its highly perishable nature, she said that those who want to take strawberry cultivation as a career option need to set up a processing unit as well so that in case of poor market response they can prepare jam and flakes from the unsold yield.

“The new generation being highly tech-savvy can easily go for value addition following which the products can be sold at higher rates,” she added.

DrRehana said that under Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) the government provides loans for value addition so that the produce is not wasted. She emphasized on unemployed youth to go for strawberry cultivation.