The COVID 19 Pandemic shows no signs of ending up anytime soon in the world. The population that was forced to stay indoors across the world is finally facing other challenges of jobs, food, and lifestyle issues. Recently hundreds of citizens in America defied the restrictions and moved out of their homes to demand the opening of markets and businesses.
The majority of them had concerns about not having food left and facing a financial crisis. They wanted to resume their jobs. It is to be believed that millions of people in the world may die of starvation if the pandemic is not over soon. The world will face a huge food crisis and it may further aggravate in case the lockdown prevails. Many of the developing nations are also facing a huge cash crunch especially those solely or predominantly surviving on tourism. Such extraordinary times demand extraordinary solutions.
Amid such times, good news appeared in media that Srinagar Municipal Corporation had asked the inhabitants to convert their lawns and land around the residential houses into the kitchen gardens. The move is aimed for the self-reliance of people.
In tough situations, the cities are the first to face the crisis of essential commodities since it depends on all the imports from other parts of the country or rural areas. The officials attribute this directly to the growing apprehensions of expanding the pandemic for some more time. In such cases, they believe the homegrown vegetables along with the free distribution of rice by the administration can substantially defuse the crisis. But there are many areas especially downtown Srinagar that faces a shortage of land. It is near impossible to cultivate vegetables in such areas.
The newly developed colonies, suburbs have sufficient land available to convert into kitchen gardens. In crisis times, such areas can come to the rescue. So this is a time when we all shall support the initiative and become part of it and head towards achieving self-reliance goal.
Kashmir in the past was known for growing fresh vegetables, fruits, and quality rice. Its soil is rich and has a huge potential for growing the edibles. But unfortunately over the past few decades, we have been converting our land for residential purposes and the remaining land was left useless.
Barring few old areas in Kashmir, almost every family owns a chunk of land enough to grow fruits and vegetables for daily use. Let’s all grab this opportunity and began growing vegetables for our use instead wait for the opening of roads to feed ourselves and children.
