Yellow mustard fields in Kashmir Valley becomes tourist attraction

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Vast swaths of agricultural property are now covered with beds of delicate yellow flowers, adding a welcome splash of colour to the Valley’s scenery, particularly along major thoroughfares.

The mustard blossoms have become a tourist attraction in Kashmir valley, compelling travellersto stop on national highways and other roadways and take note of beds of dainty yellow flowers. Even a fleeting glance of the flowerbeds has inspired amazement. The number of people panning the fields with their cameras and phones for photos to recall the Valley’s wonderful journey has increased.

“This is my first time witnessing a sea of yellow flowers. The sight in the backdrop of mountains forced us to request our cab driver for a stopover,” Pawan Kumar, a tourist from New Delhi, spoke to Hindustan Times about his experience near Pampore in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

After a long winter, the emergence of yellow flowers signalled the beginning of summer, Hindustan Times reports. Mustard is the first crop collected by Kashmir farmers, who have only recently realised the economic benefits that mustard and oil seed produced from the small blooms can provide.

This year’s good weather increased production, especially given that farmers planted extra acreage.
Taking note, the tourism department is now proposing to establish tourist stopovers in mustard fields along the national highway as well as on routes connecting to the ski resort towns of Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg.

“For us, mustard fields are becoming a new tourist attraction and we would like to add this in the itinerary of tourists,” Hindustan Times quoted a tourist official as saying.

Recognising the potential of mustard, officials stated that cultivation in Kashmir has expanded from 30,000 to 1.40 lakh hectares in recent years.

Iqbal Choudhary, the Agriculture Director, stated that mustard was cultivated on 30,000 hectares of land in Kashmir till two years ago.

“We made serious efforts, first the target reached 1 lakh hectares in 2022, and this year, it was grown on more than 1.40 lakh hectares in Kashmir.”

Currently every place in the Valley is witnessing a bloom of yellow mustard, he said, noting, “Tourists can be seen enjoying the yellow bloom across Kashmir especially along the national highway.”

According to Choudhary, mustard oil seed output has expanded dramatically, and farmers are earning high prices for their crops. “Last year they (farmers) sold mustard for ₹9,000 per quintal and this year as per initial reports the rates have increased between 15-20%.”

Mustard is an annual crop in Kashmir, harvested in April, and is also utilised as a double crop. The crop is planted in October and harvested in the latter week of April and May.

Notably, Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha described the mustard bloom as a “yellow revolution,” claiming that the region has seen a considerable increase in oilseed production.

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