Rise and fall of Kashmir’s ‘Poster Agriculture’

PHERAN DIARIES – 14

By: Dr Sanjay Parva

Once upon a time, Kashmir grew food. Now, it grows selfies in lavender fields – impressive lavender fields that exist on Jammu Airport billboard. This is the agricultural progress we’ve been sold – wrapped in posters, distributed at seminars, tweeted by babus, and dumped at the feet of bewildered farmers, while hacking minds of gullible Indian tourists, who think Kashmir is more purple than green. Net result? Ministers flaunting purple revolutions even long after the revolution is dead.

Welcome to the age of Poster Agriculture – where the only thing that grows fast is the font size on government banners.

Let’s start with the Lavender Revolution, the crown jewel of Kashmir’s “Purple Economy.” The Aroma Mission was meant to turn farmers into fragrance tycoons. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) promised Rs 1.5 lakh per hectare income from lavender cultivation. Headlines screamed success stories. Posters bloomed. Videos of farmers sniffing flowers with tears of joy flooded our screens.

Reality? A 2022 report from Pulwama district shows that out of 500 distributed lavender kits, only 27 farmers continued into the second season. The rest? Either lost their investments or returned to paddy and vegetables – at least people eat those. And the lavender oil processing unit? Still “under consideration.”

Then came the Bee-Keeping Revolution, where Kashmir was going to be the new Himachal of honey. Posters with shiny bee boxes promised Rs 2 lakh per season. In Budgam and Anantnag, officials distributed more than 15,000 bee boxes in 3 years, but conveniently forgot to mention the important basic – like market linkages.

In 2023, the average survival rate of bee colonies in South Kashmir dropped below 42% due to unregulated pesticide use and weak colony genetics. And when the bees died, the silence was louder than any buzz. No compensation, no response – just more posters.

Then, of course, no list is complete without the classic “One District, One Product (ODOP)” gimmick. Every district was forced into this square-hole vision. Anantnag was told to mass-produce trout, Shopian to become the apple republic, and Kupwara the rajma capital.

Problem? Nobody asked the farmers. There was no market assessment, no soil audits, no risk buffer. In Kupwara, over 300 kanals were turned to rajma under ODOP. By 2023, over 60% of produce remained unsold due to lack of procurement policy. So much for “branding” – farmers were left branding their own foreheads with the hot iron of debt.

The irony couldn’t be sharper. Kashmir once fed itself. Today, rice is being imported from Punjab. Why? Because our irrigation canals are choked with garbage. Our fields are being converted into shopping complexes. And the government’s idea of support is offering photo-ops with scented saplings.

According to the Directorate of Agriculture, Kashmir’s paddy area shrank by 25,000 hectares in the last decade. But instead of restoring irrigation, we’re getting drone demonstrations and digital farming expos. Try eating a drone next time your crop fails.

Let’s Be Blunt. Poster agriculture is not just inefficient. It is insulting. It’s the state telling its farmers: “We don’t care what you grow – as long as it looks good on a flex banner.”

We don’t need purple revolutions. We need canals cleaned. We don’t need ODOP fantasies. We need mandi access, price guarantees, cold storage, crop insurance, and seed banks. We don’t need bee boxes. We need accountability when those bees die.

Because a dead bee doesn’t get you honey – Honey!

And just in case you’re suffering from short-term memory loss, here’s a little cheat sheet of all the glossy posters that never made it past the lamppost.

1. Lavender Revolution – From “Purple Gold” to purple rot.

2. Sweet Revolution – Honey dreams, bitter reality.

3. High-Density Apple Scheme – High investment, low return, zero apples for the grower.

4. Saffron Mission – ₹413 crore spent, yields still gasping.

5. Organic Farming Drive – “Back to roots,” but no certification, no buyers, no future.

6. Rajma Revival under ODOP – From “protein powerhouse” to warehouse rot.

7. Trout Farming Push – Swimming in brochures, drowning in neglect.

8. Flower Valley Campaign – Tulips for tourists, thorns for farmers.

9. Kitchen Garden Scheme – One-time seed kits, zero follow-up, and a big photo-op.

10. Walnut Export Boost – A cracking failure with no shelling infrastructure.

An author, a communications strategist, Dr Sanjay Parva was a debut contestant in 2024 Assembly elections.